


Rebellion Rewritten

by thelukle



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Spoilers, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:27:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24624718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelukle/pseuds/thelukle
Summary: Ren Amamiya has inexplicably found himself reliving the last year of his life, beginning with his first day at Shujin Academy. Though he knows what will transpire, none of his friends are any the wiser - in fact, they don’t even know him yet.Setting about uncovering this strange mystery whilst attempting to piece together the world around him like he once managed, Ren will discover that the chains of fate that once bound him are difficult to move - but when they are put under enough pressure, they might spiral dramatically out of control.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! I'm writing this on June 9th 2020, having spent about a month or so composing the first five chapters of this story and having drafted a broad outline for the story as a whole. 
> 
> What's being posted today is the prologue and the first three chapters, and while they get left up for a little while, I'll go away and write some more of the story. When I come back to this, I'll see how well it's been received and either post whatever's left and abandon ship, or if there's a desire for more then get back to the writing!
> 
> Just a brief note: the first few chapters are fairly story-heavy in very short periods of in-universe time as a lot of bits need setting up, but once things are established I intend to let the pacing breathe and re-write virtually all Confidants using their original stories as starting points. My plan at that point is to try and evenly balance Confidant time with story time. There are certain big things from both Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal that will be spoiled pretty early on in this, so if you're trying to avoid them then thanks for reading this far and sayonara!

\--- Thursday 2nd February, Evening ---

Two men sat at the table. Once, what seemed to be a lifetime ago, they had shared coffee at the counter in front of which the third man stood. Now, there was just the bitter chill of winter winds gusting underneath the door, and any warmth between the three of them was long since lost to those winds.

Sitting with his back to the door, the first man bore a brown jacket that seemed too flimsy for the time of year, although paired with the cream jumper and blue shirt underneath it appeared to be serving him just fine. His dark hair was wavy and loose, but clearly parted on one side, opening over a bespectacled face and a pair of eyes that held so many things at once: remorse, pity, anger, determination, but above all, hope.

"I can only apologise. It seems that we won't be able to reach an agreement on how to proceed forwards from here"

The boy he addressed sat opposite him. Though his hair was even darker, discerning whether it was dishevelled and scruffy or immaculately styled seemed to be impossible, but its ambiguity spoke volumes about the man who wore that look. The same could be said of his glasses, which were slightly rounder than the other man; wholly for appearance, intensely calculated, just another facet of a boy who said few words, or perhaps all of those things at once. His gaze was downwards, not betraying any doubts or projecting any bluster.

"So it's come to this?"

The two shared a silence, contemplating what a lack of resolution today would mean for the now-inevitable encounter they would need tomorrow. The third man, another boy clad in a double-breasted tan coat that almost matched his fair hair and a tartan scarf wrapped tightly around his neck, cast a judgmental gaze upon the only other occupants of the café which was accentuated by the point between his eyes where his hair seemed to twist and come to a jagged point. His voice dripped with contempt as he cut through the room. 

"Of course it has. I was never going to let it come to anything else - your repulsive actions deserve nothing less than the justice I will enact upon you. Whether or not he helps..." his eyes briefly darted away from the wavy-haired man he was addressing to try once again to ascertain the emotions of the boy whose eyes had not left the table for the last few minutes, "is up to him, but I won't allow you to change me any more than you already have."

The man in the brown jacket paused to consider for a moment, his expression getting lost behind his rectangular glasses, whose shine made the glass appear almost tinted for a moment. Then he raised his head to speak to the other two men, his glasses clearing once more, as if betraying the idea that had just appeared.

"Then I can realise your dreams," he gave a slight nod towards the boy across the table, then faced the boy by the counter, "and give you a fresh chance to exist happily in this reality. And... I'm sorry, but this is too important for me to allow either of you to object."

A shimmer ran through the air, and the two boys tried to act. The one at the table jumped up and tried to reach out to prevent whatever was coming. The one by the counter reached inside his jacket to try and find the pistol that once resided within, which was now replaced by a model gun. There wasn't enough time to figure out whether or not it would have fired here. Before the model gun could be removed from its resting place, the boy who was to draw it had disappeared. 

As the scruffy-haired boy finished raising his hand, he was no longer reaching out to the man across the table from him. He was standing in the rain, watching a car that had just pulled up setting back off down a busy road. The clothes he was wearing had become a black jacket with red buttons. He had many emotions running through him at that moment. The rain, the road and the clothes sparked a memory. No, it wasn't a memory. It was...

Suddenly a boy with blonde, spiky hair and a very slight limp sprinted past him, and Ren Amamiya found himself questioning where and when he was, and why he was there at all.

\---

Ren Amamiya stood frozen in the rain, his arm outstretched and his mouth agape. Had the blonde boy elected to pay attention, it would have given him plenty of time to admire the pristine new Shujin Academy uniform - a black jacket with red stitching and a small number '2' on the lapel, a white shirt that covered the neck, and plaid trousers that would have looked like pyjamas if they were made from any other material - that he was so flagrantly trying to violate. The blonde boy chose instead to continue yelling profanities at the car that was driving away from the pair of them.

Though a million thoughts were racing through Ren's mind, a combination of wanting to talk to his friend and desperately needing him to shut up so Ren could think led him to push those thoughts away for a moment. Instead, he tried to get the blonde boy's attention.

"Ryuji, calm down."

What happened next was the latest in a quickly forming list of surprising scenarios. Ren expected him to either listen or just brush him off. Instead, the blonde boy span around with an accusatory stare and took a step towards him, only to stop himself and let out a grunt of discontent.

"That's Sakamoto to you. I ain't that close to anyone involved with the rumours 'round me."

Ryuji Sakamoto was wearing the same jacket and trousers as Ren, albeit in slightly worse condition, but instead of the white shirt was a yellow t-shirt that boldly declared 'ZOMG' - which, ironically, was exactly how Ren was feeling about the situation.

"E... excuse me?" Ren stammered out, an equal mix of genuine apology and utter bewilderment.

"Eh, s'alright. Just kinda caught me off guard, y'know." Ryuji's gaze fell slightly, as if slightly embarrassed by his behaviour. "But seriously, if you wanna make friends that bad on first day, you probably oughta be a little less, uh, personal?"

The questions that Ren was trying to suppress in his mind were only spinning faster now. In front of him was Ryuji Sakamoto, the boy that he considered his best friend since about last April. They had met in circumstances identical to this last April, and proceeded to scrape through hell together - both figuratively and literally. But Ryuji was never a good enough actor to lie to Ren like he was right now, which meant...

"Hey, you a Shujin transfer?" Ryuji asked, vaguely gesturing to the '2' on Ren's jacket which matched Ryuji's, although again the latter was more tatty. "Haven't seen you around before. God, how's Kamoshida tellin' transfer students about me now?" He trailed off as if deep in thought.

"Kamoshida?" The rush of emotions from hearing his name meant the word didn't compute fully in Ren's mind, more of an automatic response than a genuine question.

"Huh, you must be a transfer if you don't know Suguru Kamoshida." Ryuji frowned as if contemplating the words he had just spoken, but he was too worked up to realise quite why it bothered him so much, so he continued. "Gym teacher, volleyball medalist, grade-A dirtbag. Guess I'm biased, but I can't stand how much the school treats him like some kinda king."

The word 'king' resonated with Ren, and all of a sudden he hit upon a hunch. A memory that was at once vivid and distant surfaced, and in Ren's mind was images of slaves and books and knights and-

"You mean _Suguru Kamoshida_ thinks _Shujin Academy_ is some kind of _castle_?" There was a pointed accent to Ren's words, and as he said them Ren moved his hand into his phone pocket, feeling for any kind of response from it. 

"Well, yeah, I guess exactly like that," Ryuji mumbled, his faltering voice betraying his unease at how quickly Ren had perceived his train of thought, "like some kinda castle..."

"You said it was first day?" Ren asked, with a directness to his question that both drew attention to and distracted from how abrupt the change of topic was. Either would have been enough to confuse Ryuji as it was, so both threw him completely for a loop.

"Uh, yeah, of course?"

"Better not be late then." Ren set off, walking quickly and closing the distance between the two before swiftly overtaking him. Ryuji stood stunned as the frizzy-haired whirlwind passed him by, unable to piece together quite what had just happened, only snapping out of his light stupor when Ren turned back around and gestured with his arms as if to say 'well come on then, what are you doing'. Ryuji sunk his shoulders, dropped his head and began to follow.

"Fine... Guess I oughta try and start the year right this time."

Though his words gave the impression of a boy who was somewhat keen to arrive at school, even if only to avoid the alternative of being reprimanded, his dawdling pace betrayed just how unenthused Ryuji actually was about the prospect. By the time Ren rounded the corner, Ryuji was already several paces behind, so by the time Ryuji made it to the same corner he expected Ren to be far ahead. He didn't expect Ren to be stopped dead in his tracks, and accordingly Ryuji walked straight into him.

"What gives, man?" Ryuji muttered, already feeling exhausted from a packed commute, as it always was on the first day of a new school year, and from dealing with the strange new transfer student that seemed to not know whether or not he actually wanted to make it to school. Perhaps he was having second thoughts. Ryuji pondered for a moment. If this kid was willing to bunk off first day, was he?

But as Ryuji looked beyond the transfer student, he realised that there was no school in front of him from which to bunk off. Or rather, where the school had been for each of Ryuji's commutes in his first year at Shujin Academy, there was now something far different. His attention was drawn first to the drawbridge, then to the portcullis at the end of it, and then beyond that to a set of enormous, looming doors. 

"I... don't understand..." Ryuji began. Had he not been trying to comprehend what now lay in front of him, he might have been able to finish that sentence. As it was, the sight of a castle not only in central Tokyo but in the exact same spot as his school had undermined his ability to finish sentences. Besides him, Ren held a similar expression.

"Me neither." 

If Ren had stumbled across this without any context then it would have been confusing enough, finding a castle where you expected to find your new transfer school. But unlike Ryuji, who was confused because he had never seen anything like this before, Ren was bewildered because he did recognise this place. Before him stood the castle that he had once destroyed.

\---

As the two boys crossed the drawbridge and surveyed the unusual scene in front of them, differing thoughts crossed their minds. Ryuji was paying attention on a surface level to the details he could see: the medieval stone architecture that lent the castle an even starker contrast to the bustling Tokyo with which he was familiar, the sheer overwhelming scale of the whole building, with a solitary tower extending far up into the skyline from somewhere deeper in the castle, the paltry light of the torches on the wall contrasting with the painful gleam coming through the cracks in the door that told of a brightness from within.

Ren, on the other hand, was looking for specifics, little details that he hoped would jog his memory and offer some much needed clues as to what was going on here. He focused, shutting out some of the outside ambience to sharpen his sight. To the left of the large doors, his eye was drawn to a crack in the wall, about ten feet off the ground but easily accessible from the crates beneath it. To the right... wasn't there usually something off to the right? Could he just not see it? 

The situation was too much for Ren to speculate on what he was missing, and in any case it was rather difficult to focus on account of Ryuji commentating on everything he saw, as if it might snap him out of his stupor or make the school reappear. Eventually, once Ryuji ran out of things to mention that he had seen, he turned to Ren.

"So, uh, I know you only just started coming here and all, but you know anything about this fancy dress deal?"

"Fancy... what?"

Ryuji cast a quizzical look towards Ren, certainly not the first of the morning. "Well like, I guess they're tryna do something fun to welcome everyone? They had enough time to set it up before the year started, right?"

Ren stared at Ryuji, his slightly agape mouth betraying just how ludicrous a suggestion he thought this was. In fairness, had Ren not seen the castle before, he might have thought it a more plausible idea than he currently deemed it. However, the silence only convinced Ryuji to try and run with this idea. Part of his brain knew that this was certainly not the answer, but frankly all common sense had been long since abandoned, so the answer that currently caused the fewest headaches was the one he was happy to accept.

"C'mon man, they've probably got some spooky decorations inside." Ryuji offered a weak grin and imitated a ghost noise with very little conviction but a surprising degree of accuracy, mostly on account of how badly his voice was trembling. He turned towards the door and took a deep breath. "Why don't I ever find out about these things till I get here..."

The thought crossed Ren's mind to try and stop him, but truthfully he was curious to see inside as well. He vaguely remembered a big red carpet, and a staircase, and if he'd put more thought into it he probably could have remembered more of what lay ahead, but with the doors in front of them that didn't seem like the most pressing priority. Instead, he walked up to the doors with Ryuji, and together they pushed their way into the castle. 

The boys flinched as they entered, their eyes taking a moment to adjust - not just to the brightness of their new surroundings, nor even to its gaudiness, but to how detached it looked from reality. It was as if someone had designed the most clichéd castle entrance possible, with chandeliers overhead, symmetrical staircases at the back of the hall leading out to the sides, and a giant painting of an incredibly toned man in pink underwear and a gleaming crown that leered at the two of them as they intruded upon its gaze. 

And then suddenly it was as if the decorations in the room were merely pieces of fine cloth, and one could look through them if they paid enough attention to the items. The grand staircase hazed over into something altogether more modest, just a functional set of stairs that led upwards. The chandelier flickered, and while it was dimmed there instead seemed to be some simple fluorescent tube lighting. The painting seemed to disappear entirely for a moment, and though Ryuji didn't seem to notice it, Ren realised that it was taking the place of the trophy cabinet that greeted all the students as they arrived at Shujin Academy. Every aspect of the school entryway had been twisted into this grotesque scene.

Ryuji handled this with all of the grace that he had shown thus far that morning. "Oh shit... what the hell..." He trailed off, the last ounce of deniability that was clinging steadfastly to his mind having finally been cast off and thoroughly dashed. 

Now that Ren knew where they were, he was paying more attention to Ryuji, watching him closely to try and glean any more clues about what he was thinking so that Ren might himself be able to piece together what had happened here. Try as he might to wrack his brain, he couldn't quite put his finger on what was bugging him so much.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Ryuji's voice pierced the room, snapping Ren out of his inwards concentration and focusing his attention on the blonde boy. In fact, the blonde boy's attention was squarely being returned to Ren. "Dude, I _asked_ if it was fancy dress! You tryin' to embarrass me?"

Oh. Though Ren made a mental note to later dissect how it took him so long to notice something so basic, he was now aware of the long black coat that flowed down to his feet, the grey waistcoat that fastened over the white dress shirt, which itself matched with the white pocket square that served no purpose other than to enhance the look, and the distinctive red gloves. Ren's rebellious attire had returned once more. Then he frowned - Ryuji was still in his regular school... well, calling it a uniform would be a bit generous, but why was he wearing his school clothes?

"When did you even _change_ , man..." Ryuji continued to moan.

"I'm surprised you didn't." Although in some respects it wasn't an entirely flippant statement from Ren, it was one that he intended to bury this conversation with so he could start a new topic. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get the chance.

"Halt! Intruders!"

A voice echoed from the hallway to the side of the pair, and a knight to whom the voice belonged ran out towards them, being matched by another knight from the opposite side of the room, both of them wielding a sword and shield. As the boys looked out towards their newly-found company, a third knight emerged from the floor in front of them, and all of a sudden they were surrounded.

"Uhhh," Ryuji stammered, so lost from everything that had happened in the last few minutes that he probably wasn't aware of exactly what words were coming out of his mouth, "nice costumes, right?"

Ren's voice, by contrast, was filled with steely determination. "Ryuji, can you fight?"

"Fight? You mean like, fight _them_?"

So he couldn't. That, coupled with Ryuji's unchanged attire, would have to be dealt with, thought Ren. But right now they both had more pressing concerns.

"Get behind me."

Ryuji turned towards Ren, most definitely not on board with whatever was happening here. "Wait, but why are we- AGH!" His protestations were interrupted as the knight closest to him slammed its shield into his back, knocking him straight down to the ground.

"Ryuji!"

As Ren turned to face the knight who had incapacitated his friend, the knight closest to Ren decided to implement the same manoeuvre that had been so successful a moment ago. It raised its shield and charged at Ren's back, striking him with a clean blow.

What happened next surprised everyone, however. Ren staggered, taking an involuntary step forwards... and then recovered. Even Ren frowned. There was a nagging thought in the back of his mind telling him 'That should have knocked you down, and you know it', and he looked around with a bemused expression. Of course he'd felt the impact, but it was barely more than a graze, it seemed.

Such a display of supposed insolence did not go down well amongst the knights that were present. They all started to convulse, as if something were about to spring out from within them, and Ren realised that Ryuji was suddenly in a very precarious situation. He ran over and kicked the knight closest to Ryuji squarely in its still outstretched shield, giving him enough space to grab Ryuji around the chest and drag him up. Now that the knight was out of the way, the closest path out of the room was down the hallway from which it had arrived.

He didn't have time to consider more carefully where he was going. "With me!" he barked at Ryuji, who would have found that to be quite difficult on account of how winded he was, were Ren not almost dragging him along, having now slung one of Ryuji's arms around his shoulders like some unsanctioned three-legged race. If he'd had the time to consider his path, Ren might also have wondered where he was getting the strength and agility to essentially deadlift Ryuji down the set of spiralling stairs that greeted them a short distance down the hallway. 

Ren was, however, a little too busy for that. But upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, now slightly out of breath from the exertion, he at least solved the mystery of where the corridor would take them. Unfortunately, the answer would end up being 'the dungeons'.

\---

"The intruders have fled to the dungeons! We must capture them for our glorious king!"

A voice, gravelly and synthesised, echoed from the loudspeakers fastened around the dungeons, and the clanking of armoured footsteps followed shortly afterwards. Though they still sounded far away from the two boys, who were making their way deeper into the dungeons to try and distance themselves from their pursuers, the number of clanks was increasing rapidly.

They found themselves in a room a little distance away from their stairway entry point. It had taken then them a little bit of precarious hopping over boxes and waterways to make it there, but it seemed far enough away from danger that they could at least slow their pace a touch to recover. It also gave them a chance to look around at the dungeons, which would have been an absurdly accurate recreation of any medieval stone-work if the running water hadn't invited moss to grow along the edges of the paths. Considering the care that went into the front hall, it gave this area a hint of neglect by comparison.

Ryuji doubled over on one of the crates that was strewn about nearby and took a moment to try and get his breathing back under control. "Gimme a minute, man..."

"We don't really have a minute, you know."

Ryuji shot a look towards Ren. "Hey, you try runnin'... when you're winded... it ain't fun."

Ren sighed and let him regather his composure, taking the opportunity to think about everything that had happened so far. There was the fact that the castle existed in the first place, which they'd got to from on the way to Shujin... right, but why was he even there? His last memory before that was of him in... Leblanc? But that didn't make any sense either, and that memory seemed like there was some kind of veil being placed over it, obscuring some of the details. 

It was no good pondering these mysteries by himself. He wanted someone to talk about these things with, but whereas Ren could remember this castle, it seemed as though Ryuji remembered neither the castle nor Ren himself, so he probably wouldn't be a useful sounding post right now.

"So, uh, how do we get outta here?" Ryuji's voice brought Ren out of his thoughts and back into the dungeon.

"Well, we came down to get here," Ren reasoned, "so let's find a way up to get back to the entrance. Is there a staircase around here?"

They looked around, and at the end of the corridor were two arches leading left and right, one on each side of the waterway. 

Ryuji pulled himself up from his doubled over position. "Okay, I'll take right and you take left? One of them's prolly gonna be useful, right?"

Ren looked at the arches again, and for a split second it was as if another image was superimposed onto his vision, one with knights emerging from the right archway and the two boys escaping down the left.

"It's left."

Ryuji blinked. "You sure?" And then, after a moment's pause, "Ah hell, might as well just go for it."

As they reached their chosen path forwards, the clanking sounds intensified again, and they ducked behind another set of crates. Sure enough, another set of knights emerged from the right archway, just like Ren had... envisioned? Remembered?

"Guess I'm trusting you from now on, then." Ryuji was too grateful to put any serious thought into what had just happened, and so the two of them stole into the corridor where, sure enough, there was a staircase leading upwards. It didn't take them to the entrance, but they seemed closer to their intended target than before, which was enough to boost their resolve. 

The path onwards was lined with cells, and although their side ended a little way up, there was a raised drawbridge that crossed over the waterway, and the path seemed to continue on from there. Ryuji had now started looking around as they travelled as well, and his eye was drawn towards the cells that lined the path.

"Yo, that's a lot of cells," he astutely observed, "but like, there ain't anywhere with this much space underground in Tokyo, and definitely not underneath our _frickin' school_."

"Then we must be somewhere else, surely." Ren replied, not yet looking back, although he was at least glad that Ryuji had started to question everything again.

"No shit, but... argh, I don't get all this." Ryuji shook his head and pressed onwards. "And anyway, cells are meant for prisoners, right? So like, where are they?"

He couldn't possibly have known how prescient his comment was, but it still sent a shiver down Ren's spine, and once again he started wondering about what external forces had led to him being back in this castle. As they reached the raised drawbridge, it became clear that there was a statue next to it, and with no other tricks apparent, it seemed to be the mechanism for securing their path onwards.

Ryuji peered at the statue. "Huh, the hell's up with this thing? It looks creepy," he gazed more closely at it, "and kinda familiar?" However close he may have been to coming up with the answer, he was distracted by a boyish voice coming from the far cell just beyond where they were stood.

"Hey! You two! Can you help me out?"

At first glance there appeared to be no-one there, the sound being just an auditory trick of the light. But then the boys looked again, and at the bottom of the bars stood a strange creature that resembled a cat, or possibly a tanuki if one was so inclined, but which stood like a human, had bright blue eyes that lived inside a comically oversized head, and wore a yellow neckerchief.

"Mona!" Ren exclaimed loudly, rushing towards the bars.

The strange creature hissed, a sound that vaguely resembled shushing. "Be quiet! And my name is Morgana!" 

Ryuji stood slack-jawed. "Dude, why are you talking to a, what even is that, a monster cat?" Part of him was reflecting on what he'd done to deserve being trapped in a dungeon with a lunatic who was currently coddling a talking cat, although the other part was far too pumped with adrenaline to try and reason it out right now.

"I am not a cat!" Morgana yelled, before remembering his own advice on volume. "Uh, it's complicated, so let's focus on getting out. You want to get out right?"

"What, and you can get us out?" Ryuji's voice made no attempt to hide his skepticism.

"Of course I can, that's what I said! You just gotta let me-" Morgana's plea for his release was cut short by the cell door swinging open, as Ren twirled the keys that he had pinched from the wall next to them on his fingers.

"That's settled then. Let's move." Ren's voice offered no room for disagreement or misunderstanding, and so the boy and the cat shared one last bemused glance and followed behind him.

"In that case," Morgana continued, trying to summon up his previous bluster, "let me show you how to lower this drawbridge." He scuttled over to the statue next to it. "See this bastard's head?"

Before either of the boys had a chance to react to Morgana's outburst, Ren placed his hand onto the statue's mouth and pushed down, and the drawbridge obligingly began to descend.

"Heh, you pick up quickly" Morgana seemed to have a twinkle in his eye as he said it.

"Yeah, something like that." Ren wasn't keen on either lying or explaining the whole situation right now, so this was the best middle ground he could find: neither a detailed answer nor an untruth. 

"Well there don't seem to be any shadows around, so let's get moving!" Morgana set off over the drawbridge, and Ren quickly followed.

"Any... shadows?" Ryuji frowned. "I mean it's pretty dark I guess?"

"Ryuji," Ren's response was firm, a sign of something that should be dealt with at another time, "move."

And so the three of them carried on, and once more their hunches were proven correct as beyond the drawbridge lay another winding staircase, and this one led them back into the entrance hall where they had arrived. 

"We made it!" Ryuji shouted, more in relief than to alert everyone else, especially given they were both in front of him. "Whew, now we can get outta here."

Morgana turned around and glared at Ryuji. "What? We aren't using the front door!"

"Whaddaya mean? That's how we came in, so that goes back outside, right?"

"Don't be ridiculous, that's far too obvious!"

"I don't care how obvious it is, I just wanna get away from this place!"

"What, so you're willing to risk our infiltration just for that?"

"I ain't infiltratin' anything! The hell are you talkin' about?"

"Enough!" Ryuji and Morgana both shut up at the sound of Ren's sharp rebuke. "Mona, we can talk about this another time, but let's just leave for now to come up with a plan."

"A plan for wh-" Ryuji started to interject, but he was cut off by a pointed glare from Ren.

"Hmph, fine," Morgana seemed to sulk, "but I helped you today, so you'd better come back to help me out!"

Ren paused, then turned to Morgana. "We'll all come back, because you're coming with us." He scooped Morgana up and set off towards the doors with Ryuji, and despite some furious clawing they all burst across the drawbridge back towards normality.


	2. Chapter 2

None of them were entirely sure at what point the castle stopped existing. Since Ren's clothes changed once they were across the drawbridge, and all of the other buildings around the castle seemed to stay the same, it was impossible to say when they were safe for a little while. However, they were reasonably certain that they had gotten away when they burst onto the street where Ren and Ryuji had met and were suddenly confronted by swathes of people walking along the streets of Aoyama-Itchome. 

"The hell..." puffed Ryuji, out of breath and not for the first time today, "where did they all come from?"

"We're back, then." The reply came from in front of Ryuji, where Ren was also recuperating from their escape, but it didn't come from Ren. As Ren turned around, he gently held a black cat with blue eyes against his chest.

"Dude, when did you pick up a cat?" Ryuji was about to sigh in exasperation, but was halted by a second thought that, on consideration, probably should have been his first. "Wait, did it just speak?"

The cat seemed to roll its eyes. "How long has it been? I am not a cat!"

A beat. "Morgana!?"

"I just... happened to turn into one now, that's all." Morgana trailed off in a sheepish manner, his apparent confusion at his physical state being no small source of embarrassment.

Whether or not Ryuji would have questioned him any further would be lost to the great mysteries of time, as the lack of subtlety the three of them were showing had attracted the attention of the local truancy officers.

"Hey! Those are Shujin uniforms - are you trying to skive off school?"

Ryuji floundered for an answer as two officers started to pick their way through the crowd of pedestrians that was surging against them, each melting into the general mass of populace yet oblivious to the goings-on of other people in the Tokyo rush. Amongst Ryuji's mumbling, occasional words surfaced above the general confusion such as 'castle' and 'school', but before any of it could become cohesive, he felt a yank on the back of his jacket collar as Ren pulled him in the opposite direction of the law.

"How about we get to school first and worry about sounding believable later?" Ren didn't look back as he spoke, pulling Ryuji with him until Ryuji had gathered his footing and managed to spin around to join Ren in walking back towards the school.

"Dude! How can you be so calm? Did you frickin' see what just happened? Why are you walking back to that creepy ass castle!?"

Morgana's head poked up with excitement as if he had been summoned forth to give an explanation. "It's only a castle in-mrgh!" His explanation would have to wait, as Ren pushed his head back to its natural position and shushed him.

"We can deal with that later, but for now," Ren explained to the cat, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, "I need you to play along with me so that neither of us get in trouble."

As the three of them rounded the corner that led them to the castle, before them now lay a considerably more boring structure, that of the entrance gate to Shujin Academy. At the top of the stairs stood a teacher in a suit who was probably involved with administrative duties such as attendance, and a man with an obnoxiously large chin in a vest and tracksuit bottoms. For varying reasons, both Ren and Ryuji recognised the latter as the gym teacher and volleyball coach, Suguru Kamoshida.

The first man spoke as the two boys and their cat approached the gate, Ryuji with disbelieving glances at the school behind the teachers. "So you don't show up until lunch on the first day, and you try and bring an animal onto the premises? I hope this isn't a sign of things to come from you two this year." There was a distinct air of contempt as he referred to the boys, one which elicited a half-smirk from Kamoshida on the side of his face that the teacher couldn't see.

Ryuji started to mumble an apology. "Real sorry, Yamasaki-sensei..."

Ren, however, had been planning what to say on the walk up, and was determined to make this go better than the last time he turned up late on the first day. He dialled up his charm and softened his face and said "Our apologies, Yamasaki-sensei, but Sakamoto-san was having some difficulty rescuing this cat," he gently gestured to Morgana, still in his arms, "on his way in and asked for my help. We had some trouble getting it away from the people who were hurting it, and it took us a while to get back here as a result. We're deeply sorry about all this." He paused internally. Last time?

Ren shook off the thought and offered a deep bow to emphasise just how deeply sorry he was about the situation, and though it took Ryuji a couple of seconds to cotton on, he eventually joined Ren in his deep bow, though he aimed it specifically at Mr Yamasaki.

"Ha! You really believe a story like that from these reprobates?" Kamoshida scoffed. The condescending tone in his voice made Ren's blood boil and nearly broke his illusion, but he held it together through gritted teeth and looked pleadingly at Mr Yamasaki. The teacher stiffened his gaze at Kamoshida's words, but as if a spell was cast on him relented under Ren's charms and instead sighed.

"Well that's admirable, I suppose, but try not to stick your noses in other people's business going forward, okay? And you'll have to go and explain yourselves to your teachers too."  
Ren flashed a smile that was worth a million bucks. "Of course. We're sorry to have inconvenienced you."

"You'll have to leave that cat outside though. There are, of course, no animals on the premises." 

"Certainly." Ren set Morgana down outside the gate, then whispered to him "Meet me back here once I'm out. Stay out of trouble." Though Morgana began to protest loudly at his perceived emasculation from Ren's charade, Ren blocked out the vulgar words that only the boys could hear and walked up the stairs towards the two staff members, with Ryuji following behind.

Mr Yamasaki had already turned and started to head back inside, leaving Kamoshida alone on the top step, visibly displeased at how this transfer student had turned the tables on him. As Ren passed him, he muttered "Don't expect everyone to greet a criminal so kindly."

Ren, full of confidence from the success of previous trick, gave him a sickly-sweet smile and replied "Then let's hope no-one told the school that I'm a criminal", and headed on in. Kamoshida began to seeth, fury building up behind his eyes. As Ryuji walked past trying his hardest to avoid eye-contact, Kamoshida threw his body weight towards him, feinting as if to throw some kind of strike, and Ryuji instinctively flinched. Kamoshida sniggered, then turned and walked off towards the practice building, casting one last glance towards the pair as he violently swung open the doors to the courtyard.

\---

"Thanks, by the way." Ren murmured as the two headed up the stairs of the classroom building, avoiding the looks of the students around them who had seen the confrontation at the front gate play out.

"You're welcome?" Ryuji was still slightly shaken up from the intimidation that Kamoshida had displayed right before he left, so didn't realise what he'd said until the words were already out of his mouth. "Wait, for what?"

"I didn't know who the other teacher was, so you name-dropping him was a big help."

"Oh right, yeah I had to see him a bit last year..." Ryuji scratched the back of his neck as he spoke, a subconscious tell of the embarrassment he felt about the situation.

"Then let's hope we don't see him too much this year." 

As the two boys reached the second floor, they gave each other a half-nod of gratitude and recognition, then split off to find the rooms they needed for their explanations. For Ren, this meant heading to the faculty office. He stopped outside the room, took a deep breath to compose himself and prep the charm, and then slid the door open.

"Kawakami-sensei, I'm s-"

"You know when I saw you yesterday you seemed fairly serious about being a good student, but I guess you were just putting that on for Sakura-san, huh?" Sadayo Kawakami, dressed in a yellow jumper and blue denim skirt and with unkempt curly hair that somehow belied the exhaustion and frustration in her voice, was not in the mood for listening to the explanation.  
Ren stuttered for a moment, thrown off by Kawakami's impatience and slightly lost in contemplation about what 'yesterday' was. He didn't recall seeing her yesterday...

"If you're looking for an excuse then save it. If this happens again I'll chuck you out, but seeing as I'm long past caring right now, for today we'll just say that you felt ill this morning." It wasn't so much that her voice was no-nonsense; Ren was more worried that if he tried his sweet-talk right now Kawakami would either kill him or cry on him, and neither sounded good right now.

"Thank you, Kawakami-sensei." There was considerably less zest in Ren's voice now.

"Right, lunch is almost over, so follow me." With a sigh and a groan, Ms Kawakami got up from the staff-room desk, adjusted her posture to carry at least some small trace of authority, and then set off across the second floor towards Class 2-F, with Ren in tow behind her. As she slid the door open the students began to quieten down, but the effect was counter-acted by Ren's entrance, which caused what seemed like the whole class to start talking once again, perhaps more quietly but certainly with more vigour and energy.

"Hey, that's the transfer student, right?"

"Oh my god, it's the murderer!"

"He's kinda cute... but maybe that's how he gets you!"

"Do you think so!?"

Ren frowned. A lot of this felt so familiar to him, even if some of the things that had happened didn't quite fit that familiarity, but again he was having trouble piecing together what was going on. After all, it had only been one morning since everything started going so strange. Meanwhile, Ms Kawakami pinched the top of her nose, seemingly to try and relieve the headache that all this was giving her.

"Okay, quiet down class! As you already know, we've got a transfer student this year, Ren Amamiya." She gestured loosely in his direction. "He felt... ill this morning and has only just come in, so please introduce yourself to everyone."

"... Hi." Ren might have wanted to say more than that, but his active thoughts were far, far away at this point so his brain was working on auto-pilot to get through this situation.  
Ms Kawakami rolled her eyes. "Eloquent." She scanned the room with tired eyes and spotted a seat by the window, on the right side of the classroom as she looked at it. "There's a seat over here, go sit there."

Ren set off towards what was for all intents and purposes the back corner of the room, well aware of how many eyes were on him. As he passed the desk in front of him, he looked at the person sat in it, a girl with two blonde high pigtails that spiralled out sideways and eventually fell by her shoulders. She, however, was purposely looking away from him.

"Lies." A single word came from her mouth, and if Ren wasn't so aware of his surroundings he might not have even realised that the comment was aimed at him. Once again it struck at that nagging, growing sense of familiarity and doubt in his mind, but asking for more context probably wasn't the right idea when he was so confused already, so he kept his silence and took his place at his new desk.

As the afternoon drifted away in a sea of pleasantries from teachers that kept appearing and introducing themselves and then giving the same generic advice on how to succeed in school, Ren zoned out of it all and began to think - really think - for the first time that day. It all started with Ryuji and- no, it started with the car, didn't it? That's right, he was at the coffee table before, but that wasn't familiar, and then when he saw the car again that was familiar. 

After that was Ryuji, but Ryuji didn't recognise him or didn't remember him, then they talked about Kamoshida and then found the castle, and that was all familiar too. But then something wasn't right, was it? Ren vaguely remembered a dungeon and a man in a pink thong with a crown, but the memory somehow felt unclear, as if it happened a long time ago. Then there was a contract, and a mask, and...

The mask! That's right! When he entered the castle, his clothes changed, and that's when the memories started properly diverging. If everything else before that was more or less the same, and the moment that he tried to do something was when they ran away from the knights, then was it in fact the same situation? And if it was the same situation then why?Ren's thoughts raced and raced until they came smashing into the spectral wall of epiphany, and Ren sat, trying to process the revelation at which he had just arrived. All of these conclusions could only mean-

*SMACK*

It was not the anthropomorphised sound of Ren's realisation. It was, in fact, the sound of a piece of chalk flying squarely into his forehead. Mr Ushimaru guffawed at his aim and at the snap of Ren's head from the impact, and a few giggles were heard from around the room as well.

"Try paying more attention next time and see where that gets you!" Mr Ushimaru bellowed from the front of the room, before turning back to his lesson. 

Ren rubbed his forehead, and now that he was firmly back to reality he scrawled out two notes on separate bits of paper. Though he would have dearly loved to talk to the pig-tailed girl in front of him after class, and though he would doubtless need to speak with Ryuji at some point, Ren's priority now was finding the cat he had left outside the school.

\--- Monday April 11th, After School ---

As soon as the PA system blared into life signalling the end of the day's classes, Ren was up and moving. Though it would have been quicker to leave through the rear door - and would certainly have given him respite from the stares of his peers that ranged from skeptical to outright scared - he instead took the door in the opposite corner of the room to him as an excuse to drop a note on the desk of the pig-tailed girl in front of him. Then, with nothing more than a "see you", not even giving her a chance to reply to him, he was heading out of the room. He turned to the nearest staircase, where Ryuji was leaning on the walls, and set off for the lower floor. Ryuji was about to try and start talking to him, but Ren beat him to the punch.

"Text me." Ren's statement was simple, and he handed Ryuji the second note he had prepared. Ryuji looked down at it, and the note simply read 'Ren Amamiya' followed by his chat ID. Without the context that Ren assumed would have been apparent, Ryuji was completely lost and perhaps marginally offended.

"Uh, dude, real smooth, but go do that to some chick maybe?"

Ren frowned. "What? No, so we can talk."

Ryuji sighed and his shoulders sank again. "Y'know that ain't helpin', man..."

"Oh you know what I mean Ryuji."

"Saka- ah whatever," Ryuji conceded the fight on which name Ren was going to call him, "fine, I'll text you then."

"Good." And with that, Ren span back around and descended the stairs, walking as quickly for the front gate as he could without drawing any more attention and suspicion. He passed through the gate, then waited on the other side of the narrow street and looked around. There were a couple of students by the bike racks, and a couple more over by the vending machines, but no sign of Morgana anywhere. 

And then with a shake of a bush that adorned the entranceway, out the cat emerged. Suffice to say, he did not look best pleased.

"We have a lot to talk about. You didn't even tell me when you finish! And why did you call me a cat earlier? I am not-"

Ren picked him up mid-sentence and set off towards the train platform at Aoyama-Itchome. "We do have a lot to talk about, but first, what's my name?"

Morgana shut up fast. Whatever topic of conversation he was going to choose - most likely one that was cat or not-cat related - was far away from the question with which he'd been presented.

"Uh... Frizzy?"

"You're joking, right?"

"Your hair's frizzy! Besides, you called me a cat!"

Ren sighed. "So you don't know me then?"

"Well no, but then you don't know me either, so what's it to you?"

That sealed it for Ren. Morgana, much as he was being a bit of a jerk about it, did not in fact know him.

"Then now that you're back in this world, you're going to need somewhere to stay, right? Why don't you come stay with me? I want to talk with you about something anyway."

Morgana narrowed his eyes. It seemed too good to be true, but as Morgana planned on recruiting him anyway given what he'd seen in the castle, perhaps this was just fate speeding things along a little.

"It's a deal. You'd better take good care of me!"

Ren smiled. "Of course. I just need you to go in this bag for me." And with a single smooth motion he swept Morgana up and into his waiting school bag. Though he felt the clawing from within the bag, Ren didn't let up until he was back out of the other end of the Yongen-Jaya subway platform. Once they'd made it there, he unzipped the bag and Morgana practically leapt out.

"That is not 'taking good care of me'! What do you think you're doing!?"

"It was either that or you get put in an animal shelter in Tokyo," Ren countered, "and if you're not a cat then that's not what you'd want."

Morgana sulked at having his own protestations turned against him. "Hmph, well you're not making a good first impression for my new home."

"Speaking of first impressions, I'm going to need you on best behaviour for a few minutes. You good with that?"

"If it gets me a warm bed then fine..."

Ren gently held Morgana as he picked his way through the back-streets of Yongen, eventually arrived at a café that could be generously described as chic, and realistically described as lacking customers. Underneath the café sign, which read 'Leblanc', was a door that led into the establishment, and as Ren pushed it open a little bell that was attached to it softly jangled to draw the attention of the owner. 

That owner was a man with slicked back grey-to-dark hair and a receding hairline, which looked a lot less damning than it sounded when one described it, and an dark apron with pinstripes that sat over a pink shirt that would have looked rather formal without the apron that adorned it. However bright the shirt may have been, the face of Sojiro Sakura looked considerably stonier.

"Afternoon, Boss." Ren chimed.

"Afternoon? You mean the same afternoon that you turned up to school today, huh?" His voice raised ever so slightly towards the end of the sentence, as if hinting at fury but settling on displeasure.

"Oh." Ren had entirely forgotten about that in the rush to get Morgana home. 

"Well I don't know what they were saying about illness because you clearly weren't ill this morning, but I'm guessing the cat they mentioned is the one you're holding right now?"

"That's right, I found him this morning and couldn't get anyone else to-"

"The cat you're holding in my café?" Sojiro sighed. "Real noble of you, but get it out. I can't have animals in here."

Ren panicked a little. "But it doesn't have anywhere else to go!" He couldn't let this plan fail at the first obstacle. Morgana turned his head towards Ren and began complaining.

"Hey, what's going on? I thought you knew what you were doing!" Morgana turned towards Sojiro. "Does he lie to everyone like this?"

Sojiro, of course, couldn't understand what Morgana was saying, and instead heard a series of purrs. A hardened, weary café owner he might have been, but even he was susceptible to the charms of a cat that sounds needy and looks at you in just the right way.

"Mrgh..."

Ren jumped on the opportunity that Morgana had unwittingly provided. "Boss, I'll keep him upstairs, he won't come down unless I bring him out in my bag, I promise he won't be any bother to you!"

"Well..." Sojiro was on the brink, but still undecided as to whether he should risk his integrity over one cat.

Ren sighed and played the card he wasn't especially keen to have to play. "If you let me keep him, I promise I'll behave myself at school."

Finally Sojiro relented. "Ugh, fine. But he's your responsibility now, you got that?"

"Of course, Boss!" Ren beamed as he set off for the staircase at the back of the café, leaving Sojiro muttering about how low a trick Ren had just pulled on him. Once Ren made it to the top, he walked over to his makeshift bed, set Morgana down and then sat beside him. Morgana gazed aghast at the room that now surrounded him, or rather the lack of it, as it was mostly just empty space with a couple of shelves and tables and a long sofa that now doubled as Ren's bed.

"This is not a warm bed! This is..."

"An attic, yup, I know." Ren had shared much the same thoughts as Morgana on the day that he'd moved into the upstairs space of Café Leblanc, although he had grown quite fond of it in the time since then. "Okay, one more time, you definitely don't know me?"

Morgana hesitated. "Uh, no? Should I know you? Are you someone super famous?"

Ren's head dropped. "Right. Okay. In that case, I have quite a lot that I need to tell you."

"On one condition!" Morgana had been looking for an opportunity to drop this ultimatum for a little while now. "You're going to help me with my mission in return."

"Well," began Ren, "given what I'm about to say, I don't think that will be a problem."

\--- Monday April 11th, Evening ---

The boy and the cat were silent for a while, trying to digest all the information they had just gone through together. After a while, Morgana cautiously began to speak.

"So if I've got this right, you've been in that castle before, but from a different timeline?"

Ren sighed and placed a hand on his temple. "It could be that, but to be honest it feels this is the same timeline, but I'm the one who's different, if that makes any sense?"

There was a pause in the conversation again.

"So the, uh... wait, I still don't know your name."

"Oh! It's Ren." He offered the information with a touch of shame from having forgotten to properly introduce himself sooner. Of course, the circumstances were understandable as there had been a lot of things to contend with over the day, but it didn't help Ren's feelings too much.

"Gotcha, the Ren that took down that castle and awakened to his Persona and inflitrated the Metaverse is you, but then you got sent back to the first time you found the castle?" Morgana had a hint of triumph on his face as he decided that he understood the situation.

"That seems to be it? Honestly, I'm still really confused, but everything I haven't interfered with yet hasn't changed from what happened last time, so that's what makes the most sense to me."

"Well this is perfect! I was going to ask you guys to help me with the Metaverse and Mementos and-"

"Hang on." Ren interjected, not quite letting Morgana build up the head of steam that often made his dialogues into monologues. "I know I've told you this, but I haven't told Ryuji or anyone else yet, and I don't know what effect telling them will have. More importantly, given the circumstances that got me here seem supernatural, I don't know who or what's listening, if they're listening or how they could be listening, so... until we know more, this stays between us, okay?"

Morgana considered for a moment. "If you think it'll help our mission that way, then I'll trust your judgment." 

Another pause.

"Say, Ren... was I a cat back then too? Uh, I mean, did I look like one?"

Ren hesitated, trying to choose his words carefully. Of course he knew that Morgana was actually a being borne of the Velvet Room, but he'd only given Morgana a bare-bones explanation of what he understood anyway. There was also the minor issue that the last time Ren was at this point in his journey, he was under surveillance from a malevolent entity intent on controlling all of humanity. Was it still watching over him? And besides, whether or not it was too soon for the truth, was it even Ren's place to rob Morgana of the journey he took to find his answer? He spoke delicately as he eventually answered the question.

"You took the form of one, but then you were just as adamant that you weren't a cat back then as you are now."

"Huh..." Morgana trailed off, a little disappointed. "So, what's the plan?"

Ren took a look at his phone and Morgana hopped onto the window sill to peer at the screen. As Ren had hoped, there was a message notification from a new number.

< That you, Ren? > \- Ryuji

< Yup > \- Ren

< So, uh, today definitely happened, yeah? > \- Ryuji

< Sure did > \- Ren

< ... > \- Ryuji

< ... > \- Ryuji

< Shit > \- Ryuji

< Wanna talk about it tomorrow? > \- Ren

< Guess we oughta > \- Ryuji

< Like hell I'm comin' in early though > \- Ryuji

< Meet you after school by the gates? > \- Ryuji

< Sounds good > \- Ren

< See ya then! > \- Ryuji

Ren sighed, and the sigh turned into a yawn. It had been a long day, after all, with far too much thinking for his liking. At some point he'd have to go back into the castle with Ryuji, and he decided that it would be best to do so with a good night's sleep in him.

"Come on, you must be tired. Let's go to sleep." Morgana offered the advice sagely, but far too late. Ren was already under the covers, sleeping and dreaming and travelling to a world beyond this one.


	3. Chapter 3

To say that Ren awoke would be inaccurate. He was awake, doubtless, but in the same way that one is awake whilst they are in a lucid dream. Certainly, if Ren wasn't familiar with his new surroundings, he might have assumed that this was some kind of dream. But this was a very familiar setting to Ren: a prison cell, overwhelmingly swathed with blue, simply furnished with a bunk and a toilet that he had no desire to use on account of how easily visible it was from the other side of the bars that adorned the front of the cell. 

Outside the cell, two girls in matching blue outfits stood guard. Though they were physically identical, one carried a baton and wore an eyepatch over her right eye, whereas the other held a clipboard and had her eyepatch over the opposite eye. Ren had once held a long history with the two of them, but in this new history they were simply Caroline and Justine.

"On your feet, Inmate." Justine spoke first, a calm, soft voice, but one that warned of a reluctance to be moved from any issue on which it was resolved.

Caroline smashed the bars with her baton, sending sparks flying. "Our master wants a word with you, so you'd better pay attention!"

Ren got up, and dragged himself to the bars, a much more difficult task than it first seemed as a result of the iron ball and chain attached to his ankle. The rest of the room was surrounded by cells similar to the one that he was in, and in the middle of the room, sat at a table that looked to be exceedingly well varnished. was a spindly man. He had a large, pointed nose, eyebrows that looked like ragged lightning bolts and unnerving eyes, bloodshot at the edges and with no eyelids to cover them.

"So you've returned to my Velvet Room." A horrible, deep, distorted voice echoed out both from the man and from the loudspeakers around the top of each cell. The voice, Ren knew, belonged to Igor - or rather, to 'Igor', the false master of the Velvet Room whom Ren had once uncovered and defeated. Seeing him sat at that table made Ren's heart sink. 

"And it seems that you've awakened to your power, and a special power at that." 'Igor' seemed to stare into Ren's soul. 

"You mean my Persona?"

"Indeed, though I wonder if that is all that I can sense from you... Regardless, I shall aid you on your journey, and together we shall see if you can avoid ruin or achieve rehabilitation."

Ren breathed a small sigh of relief. He knew from his original history that 'Igor' was merely a manifestation of Yaldabaoth, the false god of control, and if being named a god of control was anything to go by then Ren decided it would be in his best interests not to alert him to this new situation, one which 'Igor' seemingly was not responsible for.

"You'd better hold up your end of the bargain then." Ren tried to meet him with a confident gaze.

"But of course. I will assist you with your rehabilitation. We have a deal after all." 'Igor' chuckled, an awful sound that shook through the bones in Ren's body.

Justine looked dismayed. "Such insolence in the face of our master."

"You'd better change that attitude real quick, Inmate!" Caroline shouted. Well, perhaps it wasn't her actually shouting, but she had never been good at talking quietly.

"Is that all?" Ren turned his attention back to 'Igor', who smiled an emotionless smile. As if on cue, sirens blared around the room, signalling the end of the meeting.

"For now. Let the game begin..."

\--- Tuesday April 12th, Early Morning ---

Ren found himself face-to-face once again with the morning commute. Though the subway platform in Yongen-Jaya where he started his journey was only ever busy, in comparison to the madness of Shibuya proper it was positively tranquil. Once upon a time he would have gotten maddeningly lost, both from the masses of people travelling in every direction, almost pulling him away from wherever his target was, and from the sheer number of platforms and gates in such a small area. Now, however, he knew the quickest way to the Ginza Line gate, and darted past a film crew reporting on the start of the financial year from Shibuya Square to try and grab a seat for the journey.

Though he was certainly quicker at reaching the train than he had been previously, he was not quick enough for the seat on this occasion. That honour had gone to a girl in a Shujin uniform with red hair tied up in a ponytail and fastened with a lush red ribbon. 

"Sumi-" Ren began to speak, for he recognised the girl as Sumire Yoshizawa, but he stopped himself. The girl in front of him may have been Sumire, but she had spent the past year living as her sister, Kasumi Yoshizawa, on account of an accident in which the two of them were involved around the start of March. Ren and Sumire had gone through that discovery together, but now that Ren was re-living his journey, he was willing to bet that, for all intents and purposes, she was currently going as Kasumi.

"Hmm?" The girl looked up at Ren.

"Oh, uh, I tried to say 'excuse me', but apparently I'm not very good with words." Ren stammered, looking for a cover for his unintended flub.

"No worries, I know how tough it can be talking to new people." She offered a warm, confident smile to Ren, before her attention was pulled away by an old woman stood next to him. "Oh! Would you like this seat? My stop's just coming up anyway." She stood up and gestured at the seat, but before either of them could react, a businessman seemed to slink through the crowd and nab the seat from them.

"Well it was a very kind thought, dear." The old woman sighed and gave a half smile to the red-headed girl, suggesting that she was in fact used to such behaviour on the subway. 

The girl remained undeterred by the development. "At least allow me to carry your bags, then!"

Ren sensed an opportunity here. "I'd like to help too, if that's alright."

The old woman was somewhat startled at how eager the pair of them were to assist her, but such offers were rare in a busy city like Tokyo, so she gratefully accepted. Once she was on her way again, hopefully going to find somewhere she could sit down for a little while, it left the girl and Ren on the platform of Aoyama-Itchome. 

"That was very kind of you." Ren wasn't quite sure where to start the conversation, but this seemed like as good a place as any.

"I was always taught to respect my elders, I suppose. Besides, it's not like I really needed the seat, I keep active enough that I can handle standing up for a bit."

Aha. There was his in. "Oh, then would you happen to be the new gymnast I've heard people talking about?"

She giggled lightly. "Well I'm not sure how I feel about having rumours spread about me already, but yes, that's me!"

"If it's any comfort, I can sympathise about having rumours spread, so I get you there."

She thought for a moment, and then spoke as if a light bulb had gone off inside her head. "Oh! Are you the new second-year transfer that everyone's talking about then?"

Ren grimaced internally. Hooray for rumours. "You got me there. I'm Ren Amamiya, 'troublemaker extraordinaire'."

"Then that makes you my senpai!" The girl offered a courteous bow, leaving Ren uncertain whether or not her ignorance of Ren's tagline was purposeful or accidental. "I'm Kasumi Yoshizawa, a first-year. It's nice to meet you!"

Bingo. Case solved. "Nice to meet you too, and thanks for, you know, treating me like an actual person."

Kasumi smiled brightly. "Oh it's no trouble at all. Well, I'd better get going, I need to start early so I can get to practice on time. See you!"

And with that she set off down the path to Shujin Academy, leaving Ren to contemplate what he would do about another person whose future he knew more of than them. His thoughts were interrupted by a shuffling from within his bag, and out popped the head of Morgana, who Ren could have sworn was smirking as much as a cat ever could.

"So all it takes is a pretty girl and you suddenly remember how to introduce yourself? I see how it is, mwehehe..."

Ren rolled his eyes. "Shut your mouth and stay in the bag."

\--- Tuesday April 12th, After School ---

Ryuji jogged over from the front gate to find Ren, who was waiting for him in the alleyway opposite the school entrance, with Morgana resting on his shoulder. 

"Hey, uh... you good?" Ryuji's words were far more neutral than his tone, which wavered with uncertainty.

"Yeah, I guess. You?"

Ryuji sighed. "I can't get that castle out of my head, man. I know those knights were scary an' all, but I can't just ignore something like that. I mean, it was our frickin' school!"

"I know." Ren spoke with calmness. "Well I want to go back there, and so does Morgana," Ryuji gave a limp wave to Morgana, still perturbed by the idea that he was communicating with a talking cat, "so if you want to go back too Ryuji then we'll all go together."

Ryuji considered the proposal. "I'm in. But, uh, how do we get there? Do we need to retrace our steps or something? We didn't take a wrong turn somewhere, did we?"

Ren and Morgana shared a glance, before the latter spoke out. "We figured that out already, actually. The school _is_ the castle, and it was his phone that took you guys there."

Ryuji stared blankly. "I... I don't get it."

In response, Ren held up his phone, with the Metaverse Navigator app open. "This is what took us there. It listened to our conversation on the way in, picked up some key words, and then... we ended up there." The map displayed the streets around them, and at the top of the page seemed to be a search history with one result.

"Okay, but... Hang on, why does it say 'Kamoshida'? What does he have to do with all this?" Ryuji was pointing at the entry in the search bar, which read 'Suguru Kamoshida, Shujin Academy, castle'.

"Great question," Ren interjected, "one we'll only find out the answer to if we get moving, so shall we?"

Ryuji looked at the two of them, both seeming very eager to get back to this strange castle. He thought for a moment, and then decided that if he was going to go and look then it'd be better to have as much help as possible. "Sure... let's go. You just tap it or something?"

Indeed, Ren tapped the sole result, and a tinny voice from the phone announced 'beginning navigation'. As the three of them turned to look at the school, it seemed to distort and stretch, and then suddenly it started phasing in and out of sight, switching places with the castle each time, until everything calmed down and only the castle remained.

Ren and Morgana set off almost as soon as the transformation was complete, as they knew what to expect. Ryuji, naturally, was not so well prepared, and so by the time the others had started walking over the drawbridge, he had time to notice them from behind, with Ren in his long flowing coat once again and Morgana back to walking on two legs with his oversized head.

"Okay, I know I said this last time, but what is _up_ with your clothes, man?" Ryuji sounded exasperated as he jogged to catch up to the pair.

"It means I'm considered a threat in this place." Ren replied quite simply.

"A threat to who though?"

"The ruler of this castle."

"Okay," Ryuji played along, just looking to get some answers at this point, "and who's that?"

Morgana interjected as they reached the door, with more than a hint of braggadocios to his voice. "Come on, haven't you figured that out yet?"

"Whaddaya mean? Of course I haven't!" Ryuji snapped back, starting to get irritated at how easily the others were acclimatising to all of this

"Quiet!" Morgana shut him up. As the three of them regained their silence, they could hear the clanking of patrolling footsteps from within. "Not through the door. Too obvious. We'll take the side entrance." He scuttled round to the hole in the wall that Ren had spotted the day before, and leapt up onto the crates beneath it. "This way!"

Ren was graceful in his ascent of the crates. Ryuji was less so. Regardless, they all clambered through the hole and into an empty room. 

"This is where I was _going_ to bring you out yesterday..." began Morgana, but Ren stretched out his hand to shush him.

"Ryuji, do you remember the fork in the path we found?" Ren asked. It took Ryuji a moment, but then the memory of the waterway with open archways on either side came back to him. "I want to go and see what was down the other path. You game?"

Ryuji shrugged. "Suits me. I kinda wanna get a better look at that dungeon anyway. Something felt weird about it."

The three of them set off out of the door then turned right, leading them back into the main entrance hall where Ren and Ryuji entered the castle the first time. As they set off, Ryuji looked around once again, and this time he did notice the painting on the back wall.

"DUDE! What the shit!? That's Kamoshida! In an effin' _thong_! And what's with that crown?"

Ren sighed. So much for a silent infiltration.

"That's the bastard who locked me up in here," Morgana growled, "and the guy who rules this place."

Confusion etched itself across Ryuji's face. "Wait, _Kamoshida_? So he knows about this creepy ass castle? And it's _his_!?"

All of a sudden, the painting span around, and from behind it emerged the figure whose portrait was on that canvas. An unbearably smug man walked down the central staircase, dressed solely in a pink thong and a fur cape, and wearing a gaudy crown atop his head. His yellow eyes burned an unnatural shade and seemed to almost pulse with hatred.

"Are you taking your king's name in vain?" Shadow Kamoshida taunted.

"King... wait, Kamoshida? What's going on here? The hell did you do to the school!?" Ryuji started shouting again.

"Hmph," Kamoshida held out his hand to demand silence, "so the intruders from yesterday came back. And it seems they staged a prison break." He stared at Morgana with contempt, and then smiled a sadistic smile. "None of you will be coming back any more, though." From behind the trio, more knights emerged from the ground, blocking their path to the main doors.

Ren glanced around at all the figures that now surrounded them, then back at Ryuji and Morgana. "You guys ready to run?"

"Well I sure as hell ain't stayin' here..." muttered Ryuji.

From out of nowhere - but more realistically, out of a pocket on the inside of Ren's jacket - Ren pulled something out and threw it to the floor, and the room filled with thick, cloudy smoke.

The other two were not going to miss so obvious a signal, and they all ran off in the direction of the corridor that led down to the dungeons, leaving an irate king and his fanatical subjects alone in the main hall.

"Grah!" Shadow Kamoshida yelled, thrown off by the distraction tactic. When the smoke cleared, they were nowhere to be seen. "FIND THEM!"

\---

The staircase felt just as long today as it had done yesterday, even if Ren was running down it without supporting Ryuji's weight this time. 

"Man, can we stop getting chased down here?" Ryuji huffed, rubbing his knee as they all took a moment outside of the archway which served as their target.

For once, Morgana assumed the role of 'voice of reason'. "Actually I don't think we're being chased. They didn't see where we went, and I don't think there's anyone down here, so as long as we don't draw attention we should be fine." 

Now that the threat of pursuit was somewhat lifted, the three of them began their exploration of this new area. 

"So what was all that about Kamoshida?" Ryuji asked, not really aiming the question at either Ren or Morgana but hoping at least one of them might have an answer. Naturally, Morgana leapt at the opportunity to do some more explaining.

"That was his Shadow, and this castle is his distortion, which mean-"

"Morgana," Ren interjected, "full explanations, simple words."

"Uh, right," Morgana started again, a bit slower this time, "so that was Kamoshida's Shadow, which is the part of him that he tries to hide because it's problematic. It's not the real Kamoshida, and he doesn't know what happens here, but his Shadow reflects some part of his personality."

"Okay..." Ryuji half-understood what was being said, but didn't have enough to ask questions on yet, so let Morgana continue.

"This castle is how he views the school, and within this castle he considers himself to be king, which is why he wears those... clothes." Morgana did not enjoy talking about Shadow Kamoshida's attire. "Essentially, he thinks of himself as ruling the school, and because he thinks of the school as his castle he actually becomes a king within this castle."

"So why does a castle like this exist then?"

"Well, what I said about this being a part of him is only half the story. It's such a big part of him that it's actually created the whole castle, in what I call a Palace. But every part of it is in some way related to how he views the school."

"Wait, so there's somewhere in the school that he thinks of as a dungeon?" Ryuji didn't quite understand it all yet, but the improving quality of his questions reflected at least an increase in his perception of the whole affair.

"If the dungeons exist in here, then most likely." Morgana concluded solemnly.

The three of them rounded a corner, and before them stood a door with a banner hung over the top of it. 

"'Kamoshida's Training Hall of Love'." Ren read quietly.

Ryuji was thoroughly unnerved. "The hell...?"

Ren pushed the door open, and although he knew what would await him, it didn't make the sight any less sickening. They had walked onto an elevated viewing platform from which one could see into several of the training rooms. Except they were training in the traditional sense: they were all disgustingly abusive torture sessions that masqueraded as training. In one room, boys in vests and tracksuits ran away from a large spiked angle grinder to try and reach water suspended above them; in another, they were strung up and struck by a machine launching volleyballs at them. In a third, they were tied to posts and being struck by more of the knights that the trio had encountered earlier.

"Shit... shit shit shit... is this...?" Ryuji couldn't find the words to describe the churning in his stomach as he watched this abhorrent sight.

"They aren't real people, Ryuji." Morgana was trying to be kind and informative at the same time, but it didn't really register with Ryuji at first. "Remember how I said Kamoshida's Shadow made this place? These things are made by him too. They're how he views people."

Ryuji lifted his eyes once again and looked closer at them. "No, you don't get it, this is the volleyball team. Is this is how he coaches them... ARGH!" A yell of frustration left his mouth, with Ryuji not in any mindset to think about avoiding getting found.

Morgana continued slowly. "Then it isn't the real volleyball team, I can promise you that. But... this probably reflects how he treats them in reality."

An uneasy silence fell over them all, only punctuated by the sounds of the torture from the rooms below. The silence was shattered when the door to Training Hall of Love flew open, and two knights ran down towards them.

"Halt! Intruders! You shall not escape this time!"

The three glanced backwards. They were trapped in a dead end this time. Ren checked his pockets, but there were no more smoke bombs in them. The only other way out of here would be to jump into the torture rooms, but that was not an appealing option to them. This time, they would have to fight their way out.

"Ryuji, stay back." Ren warned him and adjusted his stance to place himself between the knights and his friend. Ryuji was about to start protesting, but he was cut off by Morgana leaping towards the knights.

"Zorro!" Morgana shouted, and amidst a swirl of blue energy Morgana's Persona emerged, that of a humanoid being with an upper body whose muscles and proportions looked over-inflated and wearing a dark cape that flowed backwards, matching the rest of the body for colour. Its eyes seemed to reflect Morgana's, and next to them was the blade of a rapier, being held aloft in a courteous fencing pose. Then, the blade sliced through the air, and a gust of wind flew at the first knight, blasting him off the walkway and into one of the rooms below. Morgana turned to Ren and shouted "Follow that up!"

Ren reached up and grabbed his mask, white with black accents around his eyes, and with a theatrical flourish threw it off to the side and shouted "Arsene!". The mask broke away into the same blue energy as had swirled around Zorro, and a red figure with a black top hat emerged, surrounded by chains. Where it might have had hands, long claws instead emerged, and where one would expect a face there were instead lashings of flame that vaguely resembled a facial structure. 

Ren aimed a blast of energy - much like Morgana's but favouring cursed energy rather than wind - at the second knight, but instead there was a great swelling of it from beneath the knight's feet. Then the cursed energy erupted, entirely consuming the knight and stripping away its essence, until the energy died down and the knight had entirely ceased to exist.

"That was stronger than I expected..." Ren ought to have been pleased at how easily he dispatched the knight, but the confusion was instead reigning in his mind. It took Morgana shaking him to snap out of it, whereupon he looked around and noticed that the knights in the torture rooms below had started to file out with swords raised.

"Good work, but we've probably been found. Let's get out of here!" And one confident cat and, for entirely different reasons, two confused boys began to scamper out of the corridor.

\--- Tuesday 12th April, Kamoshida's Palace ---

Though there were a couple of knights heading in the opposite direction to them, for the most part the corridors were still empty. The three of them were not keen to get involved in a fight and get either held up or injured or worse, and so they hid behind crates and around corners wherever possible, until they'd made it back to the bottom of the winding staircase that led them back down here. 

"You mind if we use the front doors today?" Ren asked, a mixture of sarcasm and sardonicism in his voice.

Morgana scowled. "You'd better not keep bringing that up, or you're gonna have a lot of claws to answer to!"

"Can we just get out of here in whatever the quickest way possible is?" Ryuji moaned, not keen to get into an argument with the two pedants. Ren and Morgana looked at each other and conceded the point: now was not the time to be arguing about semantics.

"Once we set off up here, we're just gonna have to run until we get out. You good with that?" Morgana was directing traffic at this point, but as his advice was sensible Ren and Ryuji were all too happy to go along with it. "Okay, ready? Go!"

They all set off at a sprint up the stairs. It was exhausting, but the less time they wasted the less chance they had of getting caught... and whatever that would entail afterwards. However, as they reached the top of the staircase - Ren and Morgana in the lead, with Ryuji close behind - and burst back into the main entrance, they realised the folly of their plan. What they hadn't accounted for was an ambush. Four knights awaited them on their arrival, with Shadow Kamoshida leading the line in front of them, and as they skidded to a halt trying to avoid hitting that metal wall, another three knights emerged from the floor behind them.

"Come now," Shadow Kamoshida began, his voice dripping with condescension, "did you not think that I know where the only entrance to this place is?"

Ren sighed, partly in exasperation at being caught so close to the end, and partly to try and regather some of his breath. "Fine then. If we have to fight our way through you to get out then-"

"Don't be hasty," Shadow Kamoshida interrupted, a gleeful smile on his face, "unless you aren't too fond of your blonde ape friend over there." Ren and Morgana spun around to find that Ryuji was being held with a sword across his throat from the knight closest to him. 

This time Ren didn't move as he spoke: he didn't want to give the Shadow any reason to follow through on its threat. "What do you want from us then?"

"Dude, don't-" began Ryuji, but he was swiftly shut up by a sword handle to the face.

"What an excellent question," Shadow Kamoshida began, taking great joy in this position of superiority in which he had found himself, "let's see... I want you two, on the ground, dismembered limb by limb, and offered as a sacrifice to your great king." Though Ren and Morgana couldn't have seen it, there was a hideous, chauvinistic smile on his face.

The knight who tackled Ren this time did not make the same mistake as the one who had attempted it the day before. Instead, he levered his shield from above and pushed Ren down to the floor, leaving him prone and defenceless, and with a sword positioned at the back of his neck.

Shadow Kamoshida chuckled. "So, which one should I kill first then?" He directed the question at Ryuji, revelling in the depravity of the situation.

"Shut up," Ryuji finally found his voice, "I won't let you hurt them!"

"Oh, you mean like I hurt you?" Shadow Kamoshida now wore a sickening grin. "You mean like I took the star of the track team and broke his leg for speaking out against me?"

Ryuji was silent for a moment, but when he spoke next he spoke with a surprising clarity and resolve. "You're right. You used me to kill the track team. But I'm not the kid whose leg you broke. Now I'm ready to risk it all to take you down. You've hurt enough people now. You can't look down on us anymore!" 

As if responding to his words, a surge of blue energy crackled onto Ryuji's face, and when it cleared there was a mask on his face, a metallic silver skull that stretched across his eyes and cheeks. Though there was a sword on his neck, Ryuji no longer cared about the threat to his life, and with his free hands he reached up and tore the mask away. As it freed the skin from his face, a wave of electricity gathered around him, and once the mask had departed from his body, the energy expelled itself in one great explosion, blasting the knights who had surrounded them to the far walls.

Ren and Morgana staggered back to their feet, and as they cast their eyes back towards Ryuji, he now bore a spectral companion. A skeleton in pirate's clothing, atop a maliciously grinning ship and with a tattered red cape trailing behind him, now stood with Ryuji, ready to join his fight against the man before them that had made Ryuji's life into a living hell. His clothes had changed too, a red necktie fastened around the collar of what looked like a black racing suit, and yellow gloves that now held a lead pipe.

"Wassup, Captain Kidd!" Ryuji spoke loudly but breathily, as if he were tiring but still enjoying himself as he came to terms with the power to which he had awakened. But just as quickly as he had blasted the knights away, he now sank to his knees in exhaustion. Ren was familiar with the exhaustion that set in after awakening to a Persona, so he knew that it was time to get Ryuji out of there as quickly as possible.

"Let's run!" Ren shouted to Morgana, and for the second time in as many days he picked Ryuji up and draped him over his shoulder, then set off at a run to escape from the entrance hall. Morgana used another gust of wind to blow open the front doors, and as Shadow Kamoshida watched his knights slowly pick themselves up off the floor and push themselves off the walls, he turned to see two boys and a cat-like figure dashing over the drawbridge and away from the castle.

"So you want to challenge the king..." Shadow Kamoshida contemplated for a moment, and then his face morphed into one with a malicious grin. "Then I'll be waiting for you."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters 4, 5 and 6 were all published on 16th June 2020. Hopefully you enjoyed them, because I probably won't be writing anything on this for a little while, certainly not at this pace!
> 
> If you're reading this then you're probably fans of the Persona series, and if you are then you'll know that Persona 4 Golden was re-released in the week between entries for this story. I haven't played any of the Yasogami High entries in the series, so that's where my free time is going at the moment.
> 
> I might write sporadically in the next few weeks/months, but don't expect anything else here until after I've finished P4G (maybe more than once...) and then spent more time beyond that writing a significant chunk more of the story.
> 
> Until then, enjoy what I think are three pretty damn good chapters!

Ren trudged through the gates of Shujin Academy once again, not especially looking forward to the day that lay ahead of him. After he had returned from Kamoshida's Palace with Morgana and Ryuji the afternoon before, the latter had reminded him that today was the volleyball rally and to remember his tracksuit. He hadn't known what the volleyball rally entailed when he experienced it before; now he was all too aware that it was merely an opportunity for Kamoshida to flex and massage his ego in front of the whole school.

His morning lessons proved difficult to focus on once again, although he hadn't had any more chalk thrown at him, which was a positive. But all too soon lunchtime rolled around. And though lunchtime was at least some reprieve, the tension of the rally loomed over him too much to properly enjoy the time out of the classroom. Then, as if the entire day had melted away, the rally was starting. At first it was just exhibitions, mixed gender and mixed ability squads with Kamoshida shouting technical instructions from the sidelines, then the boy's second squad played against itself, followed by the girl's squad, all with Kamoshida's presence dominating what might have otherwise been a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. 

As they played, Ren and Ryuji found themselves sat around the edges of the gym, idly watching the games and more intently watching Kamoshida, trying to spot any of the arrogant, violent traits that had been displayed by his Shadow the day before. Truthfully, once they had been pointed out to the boys, it was very difficult to miss such now-obvious signs. But even that grew tiresome through the afternoon's games, and Ren found his gaze wandering to the pig-tailed girl.

"Hey, Ryuji. Know who she is?" Ren, of course, knew perfectly well who she was, but explaining how was something he'd rather avoid.

"Hmm? Oh, you mean Ann. Uh, that's Takamaki-san to you." Ren rolled his eyes at Ryuji, who clearly wasn't about to let him go mis-naming more people, especially his friends. "Yeah, used to go to school with her. Why?"

Ren shrugged. "Just seemed a bit unfriendly when she saw me."

Ryuji gave him a skeptical look. "Dude, most of the school has been unfriendly to you. S'what happens when people think you're a criminal, or just plain no-good." He sighed, heavily and wearily.

As Ren looked at her again, he thought about how sad, how lonely she looked. It was so different to the vivacious, bubbly Ann that he knew. Was this really what she was like when she thought no-one was looking? His thoughts were interrupted by the girl's game finishing and its competitors returning back to their places around the gym. A short girl with dark hair tied up into a ponytail walked over to Ann, and it was as if a lightbulb was flipped. Suddenly she was full of life, giggling and pointing and hugging her friend, presumably commending her on the performance she'd just given.

The men's first team got up from their places to take the stage for the final match of the rally, which they would play against the staff. As they passed through the line of sight between Ren and Ann, he let his thoughts drift a little further. Was that how he looked when he first arrived at Shujin? A pause. If none of his old friends knew who he was at this point, was that how he had become again?

Once again his train of thought was halted, but this time by the sound of leather striking skin, and more accurately the skin not being ready for it. A boy with slightly spiked hair came flying backwards off the court, and a volleyball bounced next to where he fell, having just been powered into the poor boy's face. From the other side of the net, Kamoshida high-fived his staff teammates, then turned back to the boy on the floor. He sighed and stepped over the net, putting on a show of caring for the boy.

"Well, if the boy's squad isn't full then it wouldn't be fair to continue at this point." One of the teachers sadly remarked, and a lull fell over the gym. But Kamoshida turned to his teammate with a broad grin, one that ate away at Ren's soul.

"This is just an exhibition, remember. We could always get someone else to step up and take his place." His voice feigned sincerity, as if he were doing a great deed to allow the school to continue to watch him play. In fairness, there was a general buzz around the gym at the idea.

"We couldn't go full power on them, of course," the first teacher chuckled, "but I do like the sound of that idea, Kamoshida-san!"

With no hesitation, Kamoshida whipped around and stared directly at Ren. "Hey, isn't that the new transfer student? Why not give him a chance to show us what he's made of?" Of course, Ren thought. Kamoshida wanted that boy gone as an excuse to get him up on stage and humiliate him, or at the very least show everyone exactly who the transfer student they were all meant to hate was. In hindsight it was an exceptionally devious plan, and Ren might have appreciated its merits more had he not been on the receiving end of it.

Ryuji looked at Ren in alarm. "Nuh-uh, no way. Don't you _dare_ take the bait."

But Ren wasn't listening. The greatest fallibility Ren possessed was his pride, especially when he had the opportunity to impress people, and though he was aware of that shortcoming, it wouldn't stop him from having that weakness poked by the proverbial bear.

"I'd be honoured, Kamoshida-sensei."

As Ren stepped up to the court, now a real buzz of excitement shot around the spectators. No-one knew how good Ren was or wasn't, or if he'd even played before - which, unfortunately for him, he suspected the answer would be 'not enough' - but everyone knew of the reputation of the transfer student, and the opportunity to see him on centre stage was not going to be missed. Suddenly the exhibition match had become must-see viewing.

"You, uh, any good?" asked the captain of the team. Ren mouthed a simple 'nope' to him, trying not to give the game away to the now-frothing crowd, and the captain sighed. "Just keep the ball off the floor. We'll try and cover for you."

The game began. Sure enough, it was played at the gentle pace of an exhibition match for the first few minutes; it was still bordering on the edge of what Ren could hold onto skill-wise, but as long as he focused on setting up his teammates and not being too fancy he could manage. They didn't look best pleased at being lumped on a team with a criminal, granted, but it was still good practice for them, so they treated the situation professionally.

Kamoshida didn't hit a shot for a little while, but eventually he grew impatient. "Set!" he shouted, and one of the staff members duly obliged, knocking the ball up for him. It was at a slightly skewed angle, but Kamoshida didn't care. He leapt up into the air and struck the ball with a tremendous thud, spiking it towards Ren. Ren's confidence got the better of him and he tried to block the ball back up, but the shot was too fast, and Ren's only saving grace was that the shot was slightly inaccurate from the messy set-up, and the ball blistered the outside of his arm as it flew past.

Crap. Kamoshida was trying to embarrass him by knocking him out on the court. As the crowd roared its appreciation for what they thought was a fantastic Kamoshida spike, the aggressor instead burned holes in Ren, as if trying to burrow through him and spill his guts out for the world to see. There was no pretence of civility any more. Kamoshida was here for outright war.

"Again." That was the only demand from Kamoshida.

The next point started. Again came the call of "Set!", and again Kamoshida leapt with lethal intent. This time, Ren was not interested in continuing the point. He channeled everything he could from his dodging experience in the Metaverse and poised himself. Bang. The shot rattled towards him, and this time he was ready to move. It almost wasn't enough for him, but he just managed to fling himself out of the flight path that would have led to certain doom. The crowd roared again, but now there was a split. There were even more cheers for another great shot, but also some uncertainty at the aggression on show.

Thus the next five minutes went. Cries of "Set!" and "Again." echoed through the gym. With each dodge, Ren both became more confident in his ability to dodge and more able to identify what would be coming next. With each hit though, Kamoshida struck the ball harder and harder, grunts of effort seeping into his shots until he was shouting with the hit, making it harder for Ren to keep on dodging. And with each attempt, the crowd grew more uncomfortable, more engrossed, more silent between points, and more hopeful, though for the success of whom depended on each spectator.

Point after point went by, all going to the staff team and to its star player Kamoshida, until they were only one point from victory. Seeing his last opportunity to finally put one over on the transfer student get set up before his eyes, he leapt with immaculate form and struck the ball with a hellish scream and ungodly fury. 

Whether Ren could have dodged such a fearsome shot would be asked in the hallways for months to come, but the question could never be answered, as the venom in Kamoshida's strike split the ball along its seaming, rendering it unable to find its destination on the other side of the net. 

There was silence in the hall, the echoes of what would become that legendary strike and scream ringing, then fading, then dying entirely. Then a timid voice from the teacher's side of the net finally spoke up. "I, uh, suppose that's the end of the game... It's a shame you couldn't finish it off, Kamoshida-san..."

Kamoshida was not listening. He was already storming out of the gym, kicking the doors open, and as they slowly closed behind him the only sounds that could now be heard were the echoing of furious footsteps on the path outside.

\--- Wednesday April 13th, After School ---

Ren sat against the wall of the gym. He was exhausted. His Metaverse practice might have helped, but he still only survived by the skin of his teeth. Even he wasn't sure if he could have dodged that final shot. He looked around to see how many people were left, of which there were maybe a handful. Ren wasn't keen on staying here alone in case Kamoshida came back, but while there were other people around, he could rest. His head sank into his chest with a heavy exhalation of breath.

The relatively low murmur of noise made it quite easy for Ren to discern the sound of footsteps approaching him, though they sounded far too delicate and hesitant, as if uncertain of whether they should reach their destination, than Kamoshida's would have, so he was happy to let whomever it was approach.

"Your block was terrible." From any other voice it would have sounded callous, especially given what Ren had just been through, but the tone was soft, perhaps with just a hint of being sadly understanding. Ren looked up to see the girl with the dark ponytail standing over him, very slightly hunched and with a shy expression.

"Shih- uh, Suzui-san?" Ren cursed at himself silently as his exhaustion had led him to drop the pretence of not knowing people, and hoped that she didn't ask questions about it.

Fortunately for Ren, she instead gave a weak giggle. "Either is fine, really."

Ren sighed again. "Sorry. I get enough stick from Ryuji about names already..."

"That's okay. I just wanted to see if you were okay. I've been on the end of some of those shots from Kamoshida-sensei too." Another weak smile crossed her lips, and her eyes deflected away. "You've got things tough enough as a transfer, with your reputation."

However brief this interaction had been so far, it was enough for Ren to see why Ann was so fond of Shiho now. The amount of care she held for other people shone through clear as day, however much she was struggling herself. "Listening to the rumours is no fun. I prefer to make my own."

Shiho returned her gaze to Ren. "I'm glad to hear that. You must have a pretty strong will for that. Stronger than mine, anyway."

"Finding things tough?"

A pause. "Practice can be difficult sometimes." There was an underlying tone of bitterness and regret, no matter how lightly Shiho tried to put the subject.

"If you need a sounding post then I'm all ears." Ren gently cupped his ear towards her as if to affirm his statement. "Though you'd probably get more comfort talking to Ann, seeing as you know her a lot better than me."

This time it was Shiho who sighed. "She's been a little distant lately. Well, she's trying to be herself when she talks to me, but she's hiding something. I don't know why. Maybe that's why she's so sad." So Ren hadn't imagined that. "But she doesn't want to talk about it. I think... it has something to do with Kamoshida-sensei."

The cogs started whirring in Ren's mind, far later than they should have done, and all the talk about volleyball and Ann and Shiho and Kamoshida finally sparked the lightbulb that had been lying dormant, waiting for the revelation that came with it to be struck upon. 

"If today's the volleyball rally, then tomorrow is..." Ren tailed off, his exhausted mind starting to come back to life. Tomorrow would be the day that Kamoshida called her to his office after school, and no matter who was watching what Ren was doing from on high, he was sure as hell not going to stand back and let someone's life get ruined.

"Thursday. Practice day." Shiho finished the sentence that she presumed Ren was speaking, even if she was actually miles off the mark. "We'll go over everything that we did badly today and... work on it." She grimaced. "I would suggest coming and trying out, but Kamoshida-sensei doesn't seem to like you too much."

Ren chuckled and began to get to his feet, feeling somewhat reinvigorated from the new drive he had found for his next goal. "It's okay, I know I'm not welcome there. My block was terrible, after all."

Finally, Shiho's face wore a genuine smile. "You know, if people actually spoke to you then they might realise you're a good person."

"Hey, you've only known me for a few minutes," Ren countered, "if you know me for a bit longer then you might realise how much of a firebrand I can be."

The genuine smile faded away again. "I wish that were possible."

Ren's expression softened. "Do you want me to help with that?"

"I'm sorry..." Shiho began to well up, her breathing shortening. "But I'm not sure anyone could." She turned and set off for the exit, her welled up tears beginning to fall as she headed towards the gym entrance. As she reached it, Ann appeared and started trying to get her attention, but upon seeing Shiho's tears she stopped, silenced. Then she turned to trace Shiho's path, and saw it lead directly to Ren. Ann stormed over, fury building with each step, until she was no more than arm's length from the boy who most people couldn't bring themselves to go near.

"The hell did you do to Shiho, huh!?" Ren hadn't seen this much passion from Ann on many occasions even when he originally knew her. Then again, Shiho did mean a great deal to her. Regardless, Ren needed time to plan, not time to argue.

"I talked to her. Maybe you should try that too." Ren regretted how harsh his words were immediately, but it was too late to take them back now. With reluctance, and then with determination, he stepped past a shocked Ann and headed out of the gym, and tried to push it out of his mind so he could formulate a plan to save Shiho Suzui.

\--- Thursday April 14th, After School ---

Ren had spent the last day running through what he knew of the events that originally transpired. Back then, the last time this happened, Kamoshida had tried to proposition Ann over the phone and she had turned him down. That was when Ren found her in Shibuya Square, then she ran off and he caught up to her in the underground walkway, before she calmed down and explained what had happened. Though he couldn't be certain, it was likely that nothing happened to Shiho until after that call ended. 

He didn't like taking his chances on that, but he wanted to try and keep as many people as possible safe, and acting too early might cause Kamoshida to try something more aggressive with Ann, or with the rest of the team. And, truth be told, it did mean that he had a little bit more time to set up his counter-scheme. Ren got up and left the classroom to set his plan into motion, but was almost immediately brought face-to-face with Ryuji, who had been waiting for him. 

"Yo! You wanna go to the castle today? I'm real pissed thinkin' 'bout what Kamoshida tried yesterday." The disgust wrote itself across Ryuji's face. "And if that's how he thinks of the school, then I wanna tear the whole thing down."

Ren pulled an apologetic face. "Sorry, but today's not a great day for me."

Ryuji sulked a little. "Tomorrow then?"

"Promise."

"Sweet!" Ryuji turned to leave, but at that moment an idea crossed Ren's mind.

"Actually, could you do me a favour? Ann seemed pretty mad at me yesterday and I want to go check up on her, but it'd be a bit awkward for me. Do you mind keeping an eye out for her?"

Ryuji frowned. "Huh. Wonder why she's mad... but sure. Ain't talked with her for a while anyway." He turned back towards the staircase again.

"Oh, one more thing! You wanted to know more about the castle, right?" Ryuji furrowed his brow in response. "Then take Morgana with you. He can tell you about how we might be able to do something with the Kamoshida in this world."

"For real!?"

Morgana popped out from Ren's bag. "Hey, don't I get a say in this?"

"You don't want him helping us?" Morgana went quiet at Ren's admittedly fair remark. "Besides, it'll be good bonding time for you two."

Ryuji and Morgana looked at each other, and Ryuji somewhat reluctantly opened his bag for the cat to jump into. This time Ryuji really did set off for the exit, leaving Ren to start his preparations. He'd need the broadcast room and the student council room to be free for this plan, and then he'd need to wait in the second floor corridor between the classroom and practice buildings where he could get an overview of the courtyard. First off though, the broadcast room. The corridors were emptying rapidly as Ren made his way up to the third floor, making it easier to use his ears to detect any oncoming students than his eyes.

He approached his first target and peered through the glass window, translucent and not entirely divulging the secrets of the room inside. It didn't look like anyone was there, though. He knocked quietly, then gently pushed the door open. It was empty. Ren breathed a sigh of relief and had a quick look at the broadcast system, a simple microphone and button set-up, then left the room and closed the door behind him. 

Directly across the corridor was the student council room. Ren took a deep breath and knocked. This time he heard a voice from inside say "come in". Time for the cover story. He pushed open the door and took note of the two third-year students, one boy and one girl, sitting at the table inside. No sign of the student council president; she must have been in the library studying instead. The two that were there, however, looked significantly more uncomfortable now that they knew the infamous transfer student had come to see them.

"C-can we help you?" The boy's voice shook as he addressed Ren.

Ren put on the sweetest smile that he could muster. "I'm so sorry to disturb you both, but there's a student who looks quite distressed by the front gate, and I was wondering if you might be able to go and talk to them?"

The girl started to speak next. "Why didn't you go and speak to her yourse-" She was interrupted by what sounded to Ren awfully like a kick underneath the table.

"O-oh, is that so?" The boy took over, but not after he shot a look at his fellow council member. "Well then we'd better go and see whether everything's alright. E-excuse us!" He took off with a surprising turn of pace, and after a beat of silence the girl sighed and got up too, walking out of the door and leaving the room empty. 

Now the rooms were empty, Ren needed to keep them empty. A short distance away down the corridor on the practice building side there were some storage rooms, and after more cautious knocking and opening Ren retrieved a pair of 'cleaning in progress: do not disturb' signs. Once both rooms had been sealed as best as Ren could manage using the signs, he ducked back into the student council room briefly and wrote another note, leaving this one face up on the table, then shut the door gently behind him. 

With that taken care of, now all he could do was wait for the right moment. He came back down to the second floor and assumed his position in the corridor between buildings, watching over the courtyard and the main gym entrance attached to it. About half an hour passed in that position, until Ren heard the sound of a door opening from his floor on the practice building. Ren hazarded a guess that it was the other entrance to the gym, which meant it was Kamoshida taking the shortest route back to his office, right by that alternate gym entrance on the practice building second floor. Sure enough, a group of students in tracksuits poured out of the main gym entrance into the courtyard shortly afterwards.

It was time to check something. Ren pulled out his phone and sent a message to Ryuji.

< Did you find Ann? > \- Ren

< Just did > \- Ryuji

< Real upset > \- Ryuji

< Gonna talk now > \- Ryuji

< Thanks for this > \- Ren

So if his hunch was right, this would be about when Kamoshida called Shiho to his office. This was it in. Now or never. He took the staircase to the third floor on the classroom building side just in case Kamoshida was waiting outside his office, cast a look around as he approached the broadcast room to check no-one was watching, then ducked inside. Face-to-face with the school PA system, he cleared his voice and pressed the button.

"Can Shiho Suzui please come to the student council room immediately. Shiho Suzui to the student council room please."

Ren vaguely remembered a lesson he'd been taught once on how electronic voices were only reconstructions of the real thing, and didn't actually sound much like them if one wasn't sure who was talking. He distinctly hoped that was true. The last part of his plan was to quickly dart to the student council room and take off the cleaning sign, then come back to the broadcast room and watched through the translucent glass for signs of movement.

The tension he felt was incredible. He had no control over the outcome of this any more. Every second that passed, a greater sense of dread built in the pit of his stomach. His heartbeat grew louder and louder in his ears, his breathing shallower in his lungs, his vision starting to vignette as he stared without blinking. Ren started to panic. What if she hadn't heard the announcement? What if she had chosen to go and see Kamoshida? With the power he held over her, that wouldn't be impossible. Panic. Breathe. Panic. Breathe. Panic.

Ren had his hand on the door handle ready to fling it open and go for the brash confrontation that he was trying so hard to avoid, when suddenly a shape did appear outside the student council room. Now Ren was holding his breath, not daring to make a sound or movement, even though he couldn't tell whether it was actually Shiho or not. Maybe it was the student council members coming back. The door opened and the shape disappeared. 

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

The door opened again, and a figure stumbled out of it, taking off into a sprint towards the classroom building stairs. Ren nudged the broadcast room door open and saw the back of Shiho Suzui as she turned downwards with the staircase and disappeared out of sight. With shaking legs and an unhealthy heart-rate, he gathered the cleaning signs and returned them to their storage homes, and then set off for the same set of stairs that he had just watched Shiho take, congratulating himself on a plan masterfully executed.

What Ren did not realise was that the time he had taken had allowed Suguru Kamoshida to ascend the stairs in the other building, and as he came to see what had happened to Suzui, he noticed Ren walking away from the student council room. Kamoshida began to shake with rage, and as he opened the student council room door, he saw the same note that Ren had left for Shiho, the note which, in her fear and confusion, she had left on the table.

'Don't go. Run.'


	5. Chapter 5

There was a swagger to Ren's walk throughout Friday, a new-found confidence in his poise, even an added clarity in his voice when he was called on to answer questions in class. It was really pissing off Mr Ushimaru. His planned social studies lesson was being utterly derailed by the transfer student, distracting the other students with his showmanship and knowledge that seemed to be far beyond what the curriculum would have suggested by this early point of the year. 

But Mr Ushimaru knew a trick that would always shut up any unruly student. Though he carried on talking as if it were any other lesson that week, his hand fished around behind his back, searching for the perfect piece of chalk. One that was heavy, yet not too large so as to be cumbersome, and with a rounded body but a pointed tip, to leave the maximum impact on the forehead of its target. After a minute or so or careful deliberation, he settled upon his chosen weapon. It fit snugly into his palm, yet was able to spring out of his fingers when the moment called for it.

He looked over at Ren, who looked to be dutifully taking notes, but with a reputation like his... it probably meant that he was planning some new form of incitement within the classroom. A devious smile crossed Ushimaru's face; here was his opportunity. His arm came back, drawn as if he were an archer on a siege wall, tensing for the shot. Then it came forwards with a tremendous velocity, and just as it was about to reach its outstretched finishing position, his wrist whipped forwards for a final bit of momentum, sending the chalk hurtling through the air, zeroing in on its target.

Ren caught the chalk between his thumb and index finger to pin-drop silence and looked up at its deliverer. "Do you need this, Ushimaru-sensei?"

\--- Friday April 15th, After School ---

As the school chimed to signal the day's end, Ren allowed himself to revel in the feeling that was running through him. Whatever had granted him the dubious privilege of coming back here again, he was going to make full use of it now. There was no injustice that he was going to let go unpunished. 

He strode out of the classroom and turned towards where he knew Ryuji would be stood, in his usual spot by the nearest staircase to their classroom. Next to him was stood Ann Takamaki, and Ren immediately remembered how curt he had been in their interaction the previous day.

"Hey man," chirped Ryuji, oblivious to the tension present, "I'm down for, y'know, later, but uh, I promised I'd actually talk with Ann beforehand. We had a pretty good chat yesterday and, well, said we'd do it again today."

"Oh, yeah, no worries." Ren began, looking for the words to broach the awkward topic.

"Wanna walk an' talk with us?" Ryuji offered. It was as if he was trying to make Ren feel as awkward as possible now. Ren glanced at Ann.

"Uh, if you're okay with that...?"

Ann didn't meet his look, but gave a very small nod. "Sure."

"Sweet!" exclaimed Ryuji, and the three of them set off down the stairs.

"Hey, uh, Takamaki-san," Ren tried to start again, "I, uh, wanted to apologise for what I said a couple of days ago. Sorry. It was..."

Ann cleared her throat. "It's okay. I'm sorry too. I was kinda highly-strung and I thought you were doing something to Shiho... but you were right. I do need to talk to her more, and I probably wouldn't have realised if you weren't so blunt about it. So..." she looked at Ren, with trepidation and hope, "no hard feelings?"

Ren smiled. "No hard feelings."

Ryuji looked at Ren, then at Ann, then back, then back again. "Uh, did something happen?"

There was a moment of tense silence, but it was broken by Ann laughing. "God, you're as oblivious as always, Ryuji."

Ryuji frowned. "Wait, huh? What did I miss?"

Ann ignored him. "By the way, I meant to ask you about this." She turned back to Ren and pulled out the note he had left on her desk after the first day. On it were written three words, 'not my lies'. "What was this about?"

"Well, we all know I wasn't ill on the first day." Though he hadn't seen it this time, on reflection he'd remembered that on the day all this started again, the car that drove away from Ren and Ryuji was carrying Ann, who had been stood with Ren just before, hence explaining why she had accused him of lies when he arrived in school. "But the staff made up an excuse for me, and I didn't really want to get into an argument right then."

"So it was just shitty adults tryin' to tell you what to do?" Ryuji's summation wasn't exactly accurate, but the sentiment was close enough. 

As the three of them reached the entrance, the school PA system blared back into life once again. A male voice came over the speakers.

"By request of Kamoshida-san, can Shiho Suzui report to the P.E. faculty office immediately. Shiho Suzui to the P.E. faculty office immediately."

Ren's blood froze. This wasn't supposed to happen. He'd already prevented this. Why was this happening again?

"Uh, Ren?" Ryuji had noticed the look of confusion and horror on his face. "You okay?"

Ann was a step ahead. "Wait, wasn't that for Shiho?" She turned to Ren. "You were talking about Shiho then too... is something happening?"

Ren made up his mind. "Don't let Shiho get there." Ryuji and Ann looked at him in confusion for a moment, and then Ren threw his bag with Morgana inside at Ryuji and bolted towards the doors into the courtyard, bursting through. Students that were going the other way to leave the school either noticed him and jumped out of the way, or were unceremoniously barged onto the barriers at the sides of the pathway. He sprinted through the first floor of the practice building, up the stairs to the second floor, and then right towards the P.E. office. Without pausing to knock or take breath, he flung the door open to find Kamoshida sat at his desk, not looking towards the now-open doorway.

"Take a seat. And close the door behind you, please." He still wasn't looking. Ren maintained his focus on Kamoshida, but closed the door behind him to isolate the confrontation. There was no sign of Shiho, so Ren must have beaten her there, thank god. 

"Is there a problem?" Ren wasn't about to give Kamoshida an inch here.

"Oh, so you did come." Now Kamoshida finally turned to face him. "I wondered if you'd try and help that bitch again today."

"Again?" Ren asked, trying to give nothing away with his facial expressions.

"Huh, that's funny. I thought I asked you to take a seat." With that last word Kamoshida stood, moved to the chair next to him and kicked it at Ren. He was not prepared for the dodge this time, and it caught him in the midriff, doubling him over. Now Kamoshida stood over him.

"You've been _pissing_ me off ever since you got here, you know." Next came a kick to the stomach, turning Ren over and leaving him lying on the floor.

"You've been showing me up in front of everyone." A punch to the face.

"Don't you get it?" A stomp to the stomach.

"This is MY SCHOOL!" Everything that had been building inside Kamoshida for the last week exploded out of him with those words.

"I MAKE THE RULES!" Punch. Punch. Kick.

" _YOU'RE NOTHING BUT SHIT_!" Stomp. Kick.

There was nothing Ren could do now except brace himself for the assault. 

" _I. RULE. THIS. PLACE_!" With each word, a new blow was dealt, and with the final word came all the malice he could muster.

The door to the P.E. office flew open once again as Ryuji kicked his way into the room with Ann stood behind him. Nothing happened for a moment; the scene paused as if it were suspended in time, Ren bruised and bloodied with Kamoshida looming over him, Ryuji and Ann unable to comprehend what they were seeing in front of them.

"Kamoshida..." Fury built up behind Ryuji's eyes. "You... you piece of SHIT!" Ryuji ran with his fist cocked towards Kamoshida, but stopped mid-swing as Ren grabbed his ankle.

"Don't... do it..." Ren managed to strain out.

Kamoshida laughed at Ryuji's restraint and straightened himself out, standing tall over the three students, then took his seat at his desk again.

"You'll all be expelled at the next board meeting. Enjoy looking for new schools come May."

Ann's voice trembled. "What...?"

"Didn't you hear me? I make the rules here. You've all defied me in some way, and it's time you paid the price for that. Now take your sorry excuse for a friend out of here. We're done."

There was nothing either Ryuji or Ann could do to change the situation. All they could do was get Ren out of harm's way. So this time it was Ryuji's turn to carry Ren on his shoulders as him and Ann tried to get the boy outside and into a safer place. And though none of them could see it, from the corridor where Ren watched for her the day before, a crying Shiho Suzui began to run far, far away to escape all the horrible things the world was trying to do to her.

\--- Friday April 15th, After School ---

Ren sat in the alleyway opposite the school, most of his body in immense pain and occasionally coughing up blood. Ann was watching over him making sure nobody else got close, though Ren was far too out of it to even realise that he was accompanied, whilst Ryuji went back inside to fetch both his bag and Morgana. When he returned, Morgana leapt out and towards Ren.

"Are you okay? What happened!?" The cat exclaimed.

"He ran off to see Kamoshida after he tried to call Suzui to his office, and Kamoshida did this to him for it." Ryuji explained.

Ann looked at Ryuji with confusion. "Uh, I saw it with you, I know what happened."

"Yeah I know, I was telling-" Ryuji stopped. "Wait, Morgana, she can't hear you?" He turned to Morgana.

"She hasn't heard me talk before, so she doesn't think I can. If she heard me in the Metaverse then she'd understand me here. I think." Ryuji sighed with exasperation at Morgana's explanation. "Speaking of which, I'm not letting Kamoshida get away with this - let's get back to that castle and get working!"

Ryuji looked appalled at the idea. "I ain't going in there without him, and he ain't ready to go."

"We're going." The mumble came from Ren, who pushed himself up using the wall, with cries of pain as he did so. "That was yesterday's promise. I owe Kamoshida a beating now anyway."

"Like hell we are!" Ryuji shouted at him.

"I said we're going!" Ren pulled out his phone and tapped the Metaverse Navigator before anyone else could object. The scenery morphed and distorted once again and they were back in front of the castle, with Ryuji and Ren back in their awakened clothes and Morgana standing on two legs.

And Ann stood next to them.

"Huh?"

Ryuji and Morgana span around as they heard her voice and realised what had happened. One stood in admiration at the beautiful figure in front of him, and one stood in horror.

"The hell are you doin' here!?" yelled Ryuji.

Ann tried to peer behind the metallic mask. "Ryuji? Is that you?" She spun to where Ren had been stood and saw the long-coated white-masked man that he had now become. "Ren!?"

Morgana shook himself out of his trance. "That was incredibly reckless bringing someone else in here, you know, especially someone as gorgeous as Lady Ann."

Ann whipped back around at the sound of the new voice. "Is... is that a _monster cat_!?"

Ren staggered forwards, leaving Morgana to mourn over yet another person calling him a cat. "That's Morgana, my cat. It's complicated."

"Oh, right... Wait, that still makes no sense!" Ann began her protestations afresh.

"Ryuji, Morgana, a word?" Ren beckoned them together, albeit with considerable stiffness. "Ann's already seen the worst of Kamoshida. I think she deserves to see what's inside the castle."

Morgana started up again. "But she can't fight! She'll be in danger!"

"Then I'll protect her!" Ren shouted back, immediately regretting raising his voice as he clutched his ribs, growing ever more painful as the adrenaline wore off.

Ann stepped between them all. "I don't need protecting! And if this place has something to do with Kamoshida, then I want to see it."

Ryuji and Morgana looked displeased to say the least, but there was no chance in hell Ren was changing his mind here.

"Fine. But we can't go far." Morgana conceded.

The party of four crossed the drawbridge to the castle doors, and once more snuck in through the hole in the wall. Ren found it significantly harder to contort himself into the necessary position to get through the wall, and even more painful to decompress himself from that shape.

"Not the dungeons today," Ren instructed, "I want to go inside and up, See more of this place, see what it can tell us."

"So long as we don't go far..." Morgana had a hint of warning to his voice, but the party carried on, going through to the room ahead this time instead of turning to the entrance hall. 

\--- Friday 15th April, Kamoshida's Palace ---

As they proceeded through the next couple of rooms, moving slowly so as not to discomfort Ren more than necessary, Morgana explained the basics of Kamoshida's Palace to Ann, although so much of all this was new to her that no-one would have blamed her for not understanding. Regardless, they made slow but steady progress until they reached a corridor with a red carpet which led forwards, but which also bore a fork to the left.

Ren frowned at the sight of this corridor. When he had discovered this place in his original timeline, hadn't the spikes in the floor been left up so they couldn't get through? And didn't they only come down once Ann had entered the Palace?

"This way." He led the party down the fork, with suits of armour lined alongside them to form a grotesque guard of honour for their arrival. He gingerly pushed the door open, and what he saw made his stomach churn. Inside was a room with a bondage frame as its centrepiece, and leering over it was the caped figure of Shadow Kamoshida. Most sickeningly, attached to the frame in a perverted bunny girl outfit that only accentuated her vulnerability was Shiho Suzui. Ren reasoned that it was most likely a cognitive Shiho, but it didn't make the image any less perverse.

"SHIHO!" Ann's yell pierced the room.

"Don't worry, she's just a fake." Morgana tried to reassure her. Ann wasn't to know any better about cognitions, but all her cry had served to do was alert Shadow Kamoshida to their presence. He turned slowly to face them all.

"You know, if you'd just let me have my way with that girl, then I might have let you continue your little antics." The Shadow spoke with condescension and derision, and with each passing word it only fuelled Ren's hatred towards both the Shadow and the man to whom it belonged. "But you got in my way instead. How foolish of you."

Ren tried to force himself to focus. "Oh shut up. Arsene!" Even lifting his arm to remove his mask was proving to be painful. How much damage had Kamoshida done to him? The thoughts and pain that flashed through his mind manifested themselves in his Persona, which flickered and seemed unable to gain its true form. 

As if sensing the weakness, Shadow Kamoshida leapt towards the group with alarming speed, striking Ren in the gut and bringing him down, keeled over on the floor. He jumped over to Morgana and picked him up, flinging him like a volleyball into Ryuji and sending the two crashing down in a heap. The knights that formed Kamoshida's security detail emerged from the floor once again, and as quickly as that all three Persona-users were helpless on the floor, leaving Ann frozen in fear and alone.

Shadow Kamoshida turned to Ann, closing the gap slowly this time, like a predator stalking its prey. "So you didn't want to offer yourself to me, did you? Even after I put your friend's starting position on the line, you chose not to help her? What a poor friend you are." He loomed over her now, and turned his head to the cognitive Shiho that was tied up on the frame. "Do you think she would have done the same for you?" He started to walk over towards her, a lustful smile seeping onto his face. "Do you think she will? Well, I suppose it won't matter now. With you vermin gone, maybe she'll finally give in to me."

"Lady Ann, run!" Morgana tried to yell out, but he was silenced by a sword handle to the head. Ann was still unable to move, but the tears were welling up in the corners of her eyes now, finally exposed to the horror that had been lurking close to her for so long.

"You know I could make a deal with you." The Shadow turned again. "I'd be willing to let the others go..."

"If I give myself to you now." Ann murmured, finishing the sentence. She knew exactly what the offer was going to be.

"Forever and ever." Shadow Kamoshida was enjoying this now, his perversion no longer being suppressed. He had all the power in the exchange, and now he just had to exert it to finally get what he wanted. "You'll do whatever I want you to do, because that's all the worth a bitch like you will ever have."

"Lies." The single word spluttered out from Ren, about all he could manage to get out in his state. But it was enough. Ann looked over, then cast her eyes downwards, and finally the tears started to streak down her face.

"Not my lies."

"Just the lies of shitty adults tellin' us what to do." Ryuji finished the bitter trifecta.

"The only thing I will do," Ann started to stir, her voice growing louder with each word, "is defy you, and take my life back again. I'm in control now, and you won't EVER hurt my friends again!"

Blue flame engulfed Ann's face and imbued itself into the surge of energy that rushed out from around her, crackling with heat and catching on the heavy plated armour of the knights in the room, sending them careening into the walls. Once it all settled, a red mask was covering her face. Ann reached up to it, then tore it off in one grotesque motion, flinging it towards the Shadow in front of her. 

The mask flitted in the air, and then as it travelled it seemed to gain energy and heat and flame until a searing fireball flew violently towards Shadow Kamoshida. He flung himself out of the way, leaving the lewd frame behind him to explode as the fireball screamed into it. The monument to Kamoshida's lust was reduced to ash, while its perverted creator fled past both knights and thieves alike to escape from the burning justice that had awakened. Behind the carnage, watching the flames as they twinkled in her eye, Carmen rose from Ann's inner depths, ready to smite the wicked ones who sought to use Ann and her friends.

Adrenaline surged through Ann's veins as she turned her attention to Kamoshida's knights, which had faithfully begun to right themselves and mount an attack even in the face of their king's cowardice. She felt the connection to Carmen in her mind and flung her arm forward, launching a trio of fireballs wildly across the room. Though one connected with a nearby knight, scorching it and exposing the hollow soul within the armour that seemed to claw the rest of its shell into the ground, the other two veered into the wall and the room shook in response.

"Ann, hold up! You're gonna tire yourself out!" Ryuji was starting to get back to his feet, all too aware of the mental exhaustion that came with awakening to one's Persona.

"But..."

"We're in no condition to fight right now!" Morgana's voice snapped across the room, as if he had decided to take control of the situation. Ann looked at Morgana, then at Ryuji, now fully righted but hunched over and sucking air. Finally she looked towards Ren, and saw that he had not made it back to his feet yet, still almost helpless on the floor, and the words clicked through to her.

"I'll grab Ren," Ryuji schemed out loud, "so you cover us with Morgana!"

The four of them backed out of the room in their varying states of wellness, Ren still trying to suppress his cries of pain that came with each vibration that coursed through him and Ryuji, who was now virtually running for the both of them with Ren draped over him, and Ann and Morgana occasionally firing blasts of fire and wind at any knights that tried to get close to them. Though the path to get there seemed longer than any of them remembered, they made it back to the infiltration point where they had started the mission.

Ann finally had a chance to calm down, and upon calming down she noticed that her clothes had transformed into a red skin-tight latex bodysuit, with almost-matching pink gloves to complete the look. The only area of skin that was not covered by latex was, unfortunately for Ann, across the top of her chest.

Ryuji glanced over, now suddenly uncertain of where to look but very much enjoying how uncomfortable Ann was feeling about her new attire nonetheless.

"So, uh... that's bold."

"Oh shut _up_ , Ryuji." Ann shot back, trying to cover up as best she could.

"That's Lady Ann's rebellious spirit!" Morgana's voice was laden with admiration, and possibly other things that no-one else in the room would admit to hearing.

"Spirit...?" Ryuji frowned. "What's that got to do with it?"

Morgana explained. "Your Personas are how your rebellion manifests, and your clothes reflect what you think is rebellious, which is obviously something you admire seeing as you're rebelling too. Wearing them in a Palace is a sign that you're challenging the Shadow that rules it, or that they feel challenged by you."

Ryuji considered for a moment, then broke out into a grin. "So Ann, when did ya decide you wanted to be a do-"

He was cut off by a sharp slap to the face.

"If you ever bring this up again," Ann threatened, a shake and a growl to her voice that betrayed her embarrassment at the situation, "I will _end_ you, Ryuji."

Morgana shook himself out of his trance. "Lady Ann, we can talk more about this later, but we should probably get out for now so we can recover properly." Though he wouldn't actively admit it, the words were very purposefully aimed at Ren, who had collapsed back to the floor almost as soon as Ryuji wasn't supporting him again.

"Fine. And it'll get me out of this, I guess..." Ann suddenly was a lot more willing to put her crusade against Kamoshida on hold for a day. "Come on, let's go."

The figures that left Kamoshida's Palace looked significantly less cavalier than on any of their previous excursions and returns. This time they looked like a bunch of kids that had been pulled into something that was probably far above their stations to be tackling. But the costumes they wore were proof of their resolve, and as they crossed back to reality, though their clothes returned to their uniformed original state, their hearts and minds were united on the mission that they were about to undertake.

\--- Friday 15th April, Evening ---

Ann and Ryuji had pooled together what little money they had between them to get Ren a taxi back to Yongen-Jaya. Though he wouldn't admit it to them, he wasn't certain that he could have withstood the Tokyo underground today, especially given how torturous the journey back was via this method. By the time he had returned to his home neighbourhood, his ribs felt as though they were ready to detach from the rest of his skeleton, and his hand was now drying with the blood that he was occasionally coughing onto it. Though Morgana protested that he should seek help, Ren decided that all he wanted to do that night was sleep. However, as he gently nudged through the doors of Café Leblanc, he met another dissenting voice.

"The hell!?" Sojiro was wide-eyed behind the counter, seeing the boy he was housing walk in with blood caked on his skin and blackened bruises forming across his face.

"Sorry I'm back late..." There might have been an attempt at a joke, but Ren's weak, coarse voice gave away just how bad a shape he was really in. As he tried to make his way further into the café to escape from Sojiro's startled gaze, his core buckled again, and he collapsed onto the booth seats closest to the door.

By the time Ren could open his eyes again, he was in a room that was significantly brighter than the somewhat dingy café where he last found himself, lying on some sheets draped over something that felt like a fusion between a bed and a table. He could hear... a keyboard? He gingerly turned his head to the side, and saw the back of the figure of a short woman in a lab coat with dark blue hair that occasionally shone under the strip lighting from the roof of the room. The rustle of Ren's slow-moving head against the sheets drew the attention of the woman, who turned to face him.

"Amamiya-san, you're awake. Try not to move too much." Though her instructions were firm and precise, emotionally they didn't sound as detached as the words may have otherwise implied; there was kindness and remorse in her voice.

"Why..." Ren was determined to try and make a quip to lighten the mood, but his body was betraying his intentions, and his mind was clouding his options.

The woman sighed. "To be blunt, because you're messed up. Lots of external and internal bruising and bleeding, cracked ribs, and I'd wager I'll find a concussion now that we can run the tests seeing as you're awake again." It was Ren's turn to sigh at the diagnosis. "Dr Tae Takemi, by the way. Don't worry, you're still in Yongen, and I can call Sakura-san to take you back if you want."

Takemi... Ren's thoughts fizzled far enough to remember that she was the doctor who had helped him with medicine in his original year, and in return he had helped her concoct a super-stimulant 'miracle cure' for a misdiagnosed and mistreated young girl.

The doctor continued. "But before I call him back, I have a duty of care to fulfil. If you can talk, would you mind telling me what happened for you to get these injuries?"

Ren licked his lips and tried to un-dry his mouth, then spoke quietly. "I... I'd rather not..."

Takemi looked him in the eyes and held the contact for far longer than Ren was comfortable with in his state, and then cast her gaze across Ren's various injuries that were on display. "Okay, then allow me to hypothesise, off the record. You got beaten up by a teacher at your school and tried to tough your way back here like an idiot which made them worse. You don't have to say whether I'm right or not, because I know I am."

Ren's eyes lost a touch of their grogginess as he stared at Takemi, trying to suss out whether she was bluffing or not. Eventually, he relaxed again. "And if... you're right?"

Takemi looked away now. "Then I'd sympathise with you over being treated like crap by people who should know better." She glanced back. "I'm sorry about that, by the way."

Normally Ren might have twirled a strand of his curled hair or lightly scratched his cheek as a reflexive response to people being genuinely kind to him, but his arms were still feeling numb, and he didn't want to, nor could he, chance it. "No worries. But... how did you know?"

"Well these injuries are a few hours old, and you're of school age, but Sakura-san didn't mention anything about you skiving off. Although," Takemi held up a white shirt with a large shoe print embedded onto it, "this helped me confirm the theory. No kid is hitting you hard enough to leave a mark on your clothes like this"

Ren looked at the shirt, then slowly down at his body. Takemi was indeed holding his shirt, although thankfully that was all that had been removed, or at least all that was currently removed. With his upper body now on display, Ren could see the blacks and blues forming across his chest and midriff, as well as some of the scabbing across his arms and stomach. Although it was galling to him, being able to see the extent of his injuries convinced him that he wasn't about to fall apart, and very gingerly he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"I've got some steroids that'll help you keep your strength up," Takemi reached over to a draw by her computer, "but they'll only be good if you behave yourself. That means no sports, no fights, no sex, nothing like that, understand?"

Ren pulled a face. "I appreciate the optimism..."

Takemi rolled her eyes. "Well if you can manage that, then it'll heal up in about six weeks, and then we can run another check-up to see if anything else needs doing to you." She pulled out a form and started writing on it.

"Six weeks?" This time Ren frowned, the implications of his upcoming expulsion ringing in his head along with the thumping of his own pulse. "I, uh, don't have six weeks."

"Yes you do," Takemi turned back from her desk, "because I say you do. Otherwise you're not going to heal up, and I'm in the business of making people healthy."

Healthy... A gambit illuminated itself in Ren's mind, and he took a deep breath.

"Don't you have any other treatments? Let's say... a super-stimulant? That might help me recover faster."

All pretence of enjoying the conversation dropped from Takemi's face, and her voice suddenly became harsher. "Why would you suggest that?"

Ren paused. "Because I'm desperate." He met Takemi's gaze, and this time he wasn't trying to charm her into giving way - he hoped to connect with his sincerity this time. The doctor narrowed her eyes, trying to peer into Ren's soul and flush out any ill intentions.

"How quickly would you be looking to recover?"

"Two weeks."

"That's too quick."

"Even for an experimental treatment?"

Takemi fell silent, then walked out to the lobby. As she walked back in, she closed the door and locked it behind her. Though Ren trusted her, a twinge of panic still ran through him given that the last time he was alone in a small room with an adult, Kamoshida had beaten him so savagely.

"Why do you think I'd be willing to help you with this?"

Ren played the ace up his sleeve. "Because it won't just help me." Silence fell again as the doctor considered the consequences of her actions.

Takemi finally relented and let out a small chuckle. "You're persistent, you know? You really must be desperate."

"Gee, thanks."

"Well, if you're willing to help me with developing a new drug, we might be able to enhance your energy levels and limit your fatigue and exhaustion." Takemi smiled. "Assuming, of course, that it works."

Ren sighed. "If it doesn't then I'll have other things to worry about."

Takemi walked over to a locked drawer and fished in her pockets for the key. "Then you'd better be ready to come by often to keep the potency up. And if it does take you down, at least you went out in the name of science." She pulled out the key and unlocked the drawer, revealing rows of sealed test tubes and beakers.

"That makes me feel a whole lot better about this..." Ren muttered.

"Feel however you want, just don't go backing out." Takemi uncorked a beaker with a viscous red liquid inside that released a putrid smell which invaded the air. She offered it to Ren. "What do you say?"

Ren was suddenly aware once again of the pain running through him, as if the smell had reawakened his senses. This would be no more pleasant than when he had previously helped Takemi, especially in his current state, but if it meant he would have a chance of taking Kamoshida down...

"It's a deal."


	6. Chapter 6

The sound of a metal impact and a faint crackling in the air brought Ren out of his slumber, and back into the Velvet Room once again.

"Wake up, Inmate!" Caroline yelled through the bars at the boy who was very, very keen to stay exactly where he was right now. 

"Stand for our master and show him his due respect." Justine's words were stern, devoid of any compassion for the pain that Ren currently felt. In fairness, the pain that had wracked his body before was dulled for the time being, although whether that was due to the place he was in or the drugs he was on proved to be an unanswerable mystery to all. Regardless, Ren slowly got to his feet and stood, using the side of his cell to brace himself in spite of the disapproving looks from the wardens in front of him.

'Igor' looked on, the same unnerving grin and stare on his face as always. "Though the method you took to get there was unexpected, it seems you have gained new allies in your rehabilitation."

"Glad you noticed..." There was still snark in Ren's voice, but where his charm may have once disguised it sufficiently, now there was only energy enough to display it to the room.

"Your actions may be noble, but they will be for naught if you cannot harness the strength of your bonds." Ren could have sworn that the long-nosed man's smile grew imperceptibly. "I am pleased, however, at your devotion to your rehabilitation."

Caroline slammed the bars once more. "You'd better not let our master down, Inmate!"

'Igor' continued. "The path which you have chosen promises great reward, yet wields immense risk along with it, should your plans backfire." He let out a gravelly chuckle from behind his sublime table. "This shall indeed be a most interesting game. I look forward to seeing if you can succeed."

Ren sighed. "That's great, but can I get back to sleep again?"

Justine lowered her head and shook it slowly. "Such words of insolence..."

For his part, 'Igor' seemed to ignore the remark. "I would, however, offer a word of warning. Time is a strange and unforgiving entity. However hard you fight against it to forge your own path, it will unerringly deliver you to your destiny all the same. Remember this well."

Ren couldn't help but snicker. "Thanks, Master Oogway." The twins in front of him stared at him with narrowed eyes, unable to work out if there was sincerity in his words on account of having missed the reference entirely. "But I'll fight all the same. Is that everything?" 

The ringing of alarms from around the room answered the question for him.

\--- Monday 18th April, Lunchtime --- 14 Days Until Expulsion ---

Ren was an exhausted mess. That wasn't from a lack of sleep; he'd been asleep more than he'd been awake ever since he downed Takemi's strange concoction. It had unfortunately meant that he'd missed Saturday's teaching, albeit on medical advice, but he was determined to not let Kamoshida get any more of a moral victory and had forced himself into Shujin Academy today.

It was almost certainly a bad idea, especially as he was still finding it difficult to stay awake during classes, and as he was now finding out, it was even harder to work up any kind of appetite. As Ren sat in the secluded corner of the courtyard by the vending machines, he watched the other students pass him by, and though they would all pretend not to see him, they would always turn to their peers and gossip about the bruises and scars on his face.

That was the other consequence of being out of school on Saturday. It had seemingly given Kamoshida free rein to re-write the story as he saw fit, and now the student populace was under the illusion that Ren had gone into the P.E. office with intent to assault Mr Kamoshida, whereupon he had fought the boy off and had him suspended for the next day as a result of his criminal actions. However much Ren wanted to correct the story, there was no point in trying to persuade everyone otherwise, especially when they distrusted him so much anyway.

Morgana peered out from within the bag that Ren had set on the table next to him. "Hey, you need to eat, you know."

Ren glanced at the cat, far too pre-occupied to worry about how visible it was to everyone else - not that they'd be looking. "I already ate."

Morgana scowled. "You ate _two grapes_."

Ren returned his wavering attention to the walkway through the courtyard. "So you admit I ate then." He didn't need to look to know exactly what look Morgana was giving him.

"Well, you can't say I didn't try to get you to eat, so... I'm claiming your lunch now!"

"Be my guest." Ren waved his hand dismissively at the food in front of him as a signal of assent, and Morgana happily clawed the produce into a more reachable position. There was a brief peace between the two of them as the cat nibbled away, the sounds of the school sailing over their heads. After a while, Morgana spoke again.

"So, uh, did this happen last time? You know, with Kamoshida and... you."

"Not exactly." Ren sighed. "He beat up one of the boys, then... did worse stuff to Shiho. That was when we decided to change his heart."

Morgana perked up. "Wait, you managed it? It worked?" 

For the first time in a while, the corner of Ren's mouth crept into a small smile. "We didn't know if it would, but yeah, it worked. We stole his Treasure and send his Shadow back to his real self, and he came into assembly sobbing and begging to be reported to the police."

The cat's eyes were positively gleaming now. "That's great! Then we can do the same again now! Steal his heart, make him repent, then go into Memen-"

"Hold up." Ren mulled for a moment over how often he seemed to find himself interrupting Morgana's over-excited musings, but continued. "Last time I wasn't beat up like this. You saw how little help I was a couple of days ago."

Morgana tried to offer words of comfort, but none arrived. It had been a pretty dire situation until Ann had awakened to her Persona, and without it the odds were high that none of them would have made it out.

"Takemi said that I could be recovered in two weeks," Ren carried on, "assuming that the medicine works, which means there's a window of a couple of days right before we all get expelled where we can take his Treasure at full strength."

Morgana finally caught on to what Ren's point was. "But we'd need to secure our route first, and you won't be able to do much for that."

Ren would not meet Morgana's eyes, ashamed of the condition he found himself in. "I'll come with you, but I can't risk not being able to fight Kamoshida's Shadow, so can you help Ann and Ryuji learn the basics of using their Personas and fighting?"

Morgana's blue eyes shone as he grinned. "Heh, with pleasure! I won't go easy on them!"

"Great." Ren groaned. He pulled out his phone and set up a group chat with Ann and Ryuji.

< I want to talk about the castle. Meet tomorrow lunchtime? > \- Ren

< I've got questions anyway, so suits me > \- Ann

< Dude, why not today after school? > \- Ryuji

For once, Ren cursed Ryuji's willingness to get things done.

< Don't want to stick around if I can help it > \- Ren

< Oh yeah... > \- Ryuji

< You idiot! > \- Ann

< By the way, Ann > \- Ren

< Was Shiho around on Saturday? > \- Ren

< She was in, yeah > \- Ann

< But she took off right after we finished > \- Ann

< Hey! Why didn't you ask me!? > \- Ryuji

< ... Did you see her? > \- Ren

< No... but that's not the point! > \- Ryuji

Morgana peered at the phone screen. "Worried about her?"

"Just wanted to make sure she was okay." Ren thought back to what 'Igor' had said during his last visit to the Velvet Room. There was something about it that was bugging him now that he was more removed from the scenario. Could Igor have been talking about her?

"You know," Morgana playfully started to chastise him, "if you can treat all those pretty girls so well, then you could treat me a bit better too. Perhaps... you could buy me some sushi?"  
Ren stared at the cat, then pushed Morgana's head back into the bag and began to get up for his next lesson. 

\--- Tuesday 19th April, Lunchtime --- 13 Days Until Expulsion ---

"So you're sayin' we can stop Kamoshida doing all this shitty stuff!?"

The three castle visitors and their guardian cat sat at a small table on the rooftop of Shujin Academy, eating their lunches and looking out on what little their relatively low building could offer them of the Tokyo skyline.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Ren remarked pointedly towards Ryuji, "but I'm not saying it nearly as _loud_ as you are."

"Oh, uh, sorry." Ryuji's voice dropped back down to a more respectable, less overhear-able level. "And he won't know that we did it?"

Morgana jumped in, eager to show off his knowledge of the Metaverse again. "So long as we're careful in there, then no. That probably means we'll need code names while we're in the Palace though."

"Code names? For real?" Though Ryuji tried to make it sound as though he thought the idea to be lame, the excitement that crept into his voice alongside it was unmistakeable. 

"Well if we went shouting our real names in the Palace, it might have an effect on how suspicious he was over here," Morgana hypothesised, "and if taking his Treasure will change his real self, we can probably assume that other things his Shadow experiences will have an effect too."

"Which means," Ren took control once more, "that we'll need to get through as much as we can without being spotted."

Ryuji sagged his shoulders. "So we don't get to beat up any of those jerkbag knights then?"

A smirk crossed Ren's face. "I never said that."

"Alright!" Ryuji whooped, then promptly hid himself from the accusatory stare of Morgana. "Sorry, too loud."

Ren tried to steer the conversation back on course. "But I can't help with the fighting, not for now anyway. If we secure our route by Showa Day, Friday 29th, I should be good to go for stealing the Treasure that weekend. I can help with tactics before that, but it'll be down to you three to deal with any security you run into. Are you okay with that?"

"Hell yeah I am. I can just imagine they've all got Kamoshida's face on them..." Ryuji started mimicking swings of a baseball bat.

"I'm really not sure you want to do that..." Ren muttered.

"Kamoshida deserves some payback for locking me up," Morgana defiantly announced, "so I'll fight as many Shadows as I have to if it means bringing that bastard down."

That was two affirmations. Ren looked over to the final party member, who had been silent up until this point. "Ann?"

Ann had long since stopped touching her food. She was far away on her own train of thought and consequences.

"You're sure it won't kill him if we mess this up?"

Ren fell silent for a moment. He knew all too well what would happen if things didn't go as they were planning.

"If we mess it up then perhaps, but that just means we can't afford to get this wrong!" Morgana spoke to break the heavy silence between the group.

"I don't want him dead," Ann continued, "because he doesn't deserve to get away with what he's done... but I can't just sit here and let him carry on, so I'm in."

With the tension somewhat released, Ren spoke again. "In that case, let's plan our mission. Dr Takemi wants me to run a few more tests again tonight so I can try and sweet-talk some medicine out of her, and I want to get some equipment for us after school on Wednesday. How about we begin on Thursday?"

"Sounds good!" Ryuji was chirpy once again. "Ooh, ooh! Let's do code names then!"

"You're way too excited about this..." Morgana's disapproving words did not reach his ears.

"I'm gonna be Skull! You know, 'cause of the sweet mask?" Ryuji grinned and pointed at his face, forgetting that the aforementioned mask was not in fact present.

Morgana turned to Ren. "You called me 'Mona' before, right? I kinda liked that, so it works for me!"

Next was Ann. She was clearly hesitating over what to choose, so Ryuji took the idiotic decision to offer his own suggestion.

"Hey, with your, uh, outfit, maybe we should call y-"

Suddenly Ann was very eager to speak. "Ryuji, if you say _anything_ about my outfit I'm going to burn your face off." Ryuji quietened down instantly. "If I need something, I guess it could be cat-related, what with the ears and the tail..."

"A fine choice, Lady Ann!" Morgana offered his approval, which was almost as unwanted as Ryuji's at this point.

"Panther, then?" Ren offered, and Ann nodded in agreement. "I'll be Joker."

Ryuji piped up again. "Say, uh, what kinda equipment do ya need?"

"Well," began Ren, "we'll need armour and weapons. I'll find the best armour I can, but weapons are a bit more subjective. Let me know what you'll want before tomorrow. You'll need something for close range, and you'll also need a gun."

"A GUN!?" Ryuji exclaimed, the excitement fully permeating his voice once again.

Before anyone could calm him down again, the door to the rooftop flew open. From behind it, a girl with red rimmed glasses and long, dark hair fell through the doorway onto the roof, spilling a half-filled notepad and pen along with the cleaning apparatus that she had pulled down with her in an attempt to stay upright. As the four whipped their heads around at the commotion, her face blushed bright red and she scrambled to pick up her tools, her breathing spiralling out of control.

"I, uh, it's, ah, what, you-" The girl stammered and desperately tried to find any words that could possibly redeem the situation.

Ren tilted his head at her. "Were you trying to eavesdrop on us?"

The girl's face paled and balked at the sight of the delinquent transfer student with his face of scars, and if she were able to scream she would have done so. The sounds, however, would not leave her mouth, and instead she turned and flew back down the stairs to the classroom building to the tune of silence.

"We'd probably better get back..." Ann moved to pack up her mostly-uneaten lunch. "Perhaps next time you can try not screaming about guns in school, Ryuji?"

Ryuji sighed. "Aw shuddup."

\--- Wednesday 20th April, After School --- 12 Days Until Expulsion ---

In hindsight, Ren would have distinctly preferred not to be doing this in his school uniform, but he was keen to get out of Shujin as early as possible and that meant not having time to change. As he left the Ginza Line gate and turned into Shibuya Square, the mass of humanity bustled about with its usual disregard for the well-being of the individuals that made up that mass. Normally Ren would enjoy this, being able to disappear into the crowd and live as just another person rather than the outcast he was when he wore this outfit in his day-to-day life. Today, however, the bumps of the Tokyo denizens only exacerbated his pain and reminded him that it would be better to finish today's task as quickly as possible.

Waiting for the lights to change on the famous Shibuya crossing, he watched the businessmen and the saleswomen and the kids coming back from school, and he listened to snippets of conversations. Commuters complaining about the subway accident and the Minister for Transport, students moaning about exams and studying, some of the more nervous figures of the crowd glancing around and checking their pockets regularly in case a pickpocket had turned up. There was doubtless some positivity around - most of it seemed to be by the crêpe shop on the other side of the crossing - but the general mood was of discontent and disapproval.

The lights finally changed, and the pedestrian traffic surged in every direction, carrying Ren off towards Central Street and to his destination. He kept to the other side of the street than the surveilling police officers, then slipped left down a side alley. Though there was a blue glow in the air on the alley corner and a sound that was something akin to rattling chains which might have freaked out anyone else who could see and hear it, Ren instead shut it out and pressed on around the bend, arriving at Untouchable.

He ran himself through a mental prep, recapping what he should and shouldn't know at this point. The man who ran the shop, he knew from his past Thief-ing experience, was a former yakuza member who had left the clan and set up this hobbyist model shop to get legitimate money for his adoptive son's education, Then another clan member had tried to blackmail him, and things got messy from there. Ren paused. On reflection, now that he had remembered all of those things, would he simply blurt them out accidentally? He shook his head, decided to stop worrying and take the plunge, and pushed open the door.

Sure enough, sat behind the counter of a shop filled with airsoft guns and enthusiasts' materials but devoid of any customers to buy them, was a middle-aged man with a slight stubble on his jawline and a godawful pinstriped hat, although the attention was somewhat drawn from it by the bright yellow ear defenders that lay on top of the hat. As the bell jangled to alert him to a potential new customer, he put down his newspaper that bore the condition of one that was probably a few months old and just used for show.

"Yo." The man turned to the door with a relaxed expression, but it tensed when he saw the Shujin uniform that Ren was wearing. "What's a school kid doin' here?"

Ren met him the way he thought would be appreciated the most: with strength. "Shopping, like no-one else in here seems to be."

The man narrowed his eyes. "Ain't much I can sell to a kid, I'm afraid."

Ren smiled. "How about to an enthusiast then?"

The man laughed a solitary laugh, as if it were caught in his throat and he wanted to remove it, but there was amusement, if not quite warmth, behind it. "Name's Iwai."

"It's a pleasure, Iwai-san."

"Bit stunted of ya, but I appreciate the intent. What're you lookin' for?"

"Pistol, shotgun, SMG, three lots of body armour. I've got 90,000 yen for the lot." 

Ren wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but once he sorted through his things in the attic again, he'd found significant stashes of cash that he remembered hiding before he was sent back here. Another mystery to solve, but a useful one this time. Iwai wasn't to know this, however. A school kid walking in and offering that much money as if it were nothing to him, for such a specific order, was giving him bad vibes. He stood up, now leaning over Ren slightly.

"Tsuda send ya?"

"Nope."

"But ya know him, huh?"

Crap. "No-one sent me. Don't know a Tsuda."

"Why you buyin' then?"

"Project."

"Why three?"

Silence.

"... Group project."

Iwai stared at him, but Ren held his nerve, held his gaze and stared back. There was stalemate, and with it there was tension.

"Ha!" Iwai slapped him on the back, breaking the trance. "You got guts, kid. I still don't buy your reasons, but you won't go rattin' me out, so I'll sell."

The tonal whiplash hit Ren hard. "Uh, thanks. What's in at the moment?"

"Well let's see," Iwai turned to inspect the shelves around the store, "90,000 will probably just about get you top of the low-range stuff if you're smart with it."

Ren had forgotten just how expensive equipment shopping could prove. Nonetheless, it would be a step up from having nothing, so him and Iwai spent the next half hour discussing models and the virtues of various barrels, stocks and whatnot while bartering over prices. All in all, the money he had brought with him was entirely blown on the haul, but he'd probably only paid about 80 percent of the shelf price, so both parties left relatively satisfied.

Once the trade was concluded, Ren was getting ready to leave the shop when Iwai spoke up again. "If ya find any stuff that needs pawning, send it my way. I've got a few channels that can get ya a good price, and you'll be able to grab some better stuff with it"

Ren smiled and turned to the door. "I'll see if I find anything for you, Iwai-san."

\--- Thursday 21st April, Kamoshida's Palace --- 11 Days Until Expulsion ---

The exploration felt slow to Joker, but as slow as it was, the progress coming from that pace was steady and consistent, and there was still plenty of time left, so he was happy to leave the team going as they were. He wouldn't admit it to them, but the reduced pace favoured him in his current state, allowing him more time to recover from the spells they would spend darting from cover to cover. And though the fighting was certainly nerve-wracking for Joker on account of his inability to help, with his and Mona's combined strategies and weakness memorisation, Skull and Panther had been able to make fairly short work of most of the Shadows that had spotted them. 

Their progress led them to a room shaped in a figure-of-eight, with books strewn across bookshelves that lined the walls, and a locked door on the opposite side of their entrance for which they did not possess a key. Each space within the circuit of corridors held its own room that was enclosed by even greater numbers of books.

"Huh, never had Knucklebrain as a book fan." Skull had adopted a new nickname for the Palace Ruler.

"Which makes me wonder why there are so many here." Mona was already trying to analyse the situation, scanning the environment from their spot of cover.

"Maybe instead of wondering, we should actually look at them?" Panther rolled her eyes and began to look around. 

Joker knew full well what they would find, and how unpleasant it would be. But it was also key to their progress that they uncovered the mysteries of the books, so he let them continue while he recovered and kept an eye out for incoming Shadows.

Beyond the figure-of-eight, there lay another room, one that could have served as an observatory on account of the globe and telescope that lay within, were it not for the lack of window on the roof. Instead it looked like a room where one might drink spirits and smoke from a pipe whilst wearing a suit combination with a tweed jacket. Like the other corridors and rooms before it, this place was lined with books too, but with conspicuous gaps in three of the shelves. Conveniently, it meant one person could examine each gap.

"Dude, Knucklebrain's a total narcissist. All these books are just sayin' how great he is..." Skull had clearly found the 'King' section. He turned to the other two. "Are your books as bad as this?"  
Panther and Joker were not responding, as they had found their own sections. For Panther, it was a series of books all titled after female students at Shujin, organised by year and then alphabetically within each year. There were books for her and for Shiho in there, and what Panther saw within hers made her scared for what she might have found if she could have plucked up the courage to look at Shiho's.

"You _bastard_..." Panther could barely get the words out, her fury threatening to bubble over.

Joker, on the other hand, said nothing. He was gazing at the thin volume under his name that had been filed into the current group of second years. In it were images of him, beaten and bloodied, bruised and defeated, lying on the floor of the P.E. Faculty Office. But they weren't pictures: they seemed instead to be snapshots, frozen in time by Kamoshida's mind for when he wanted to get off to his depravity. Alongside each moment was a cursive caption, describing the cries of pain that had echoed through the room with each strike and the feeling of each blow from Kamoshida's perspective. Joker lost himself in the pages for a moment, his mind replaying that afternoon.

Mona snatched the book out of his hand. "Come on, we need to keep moving."

"Slave."

The other three looked at him hesitantly.

"Whaddaya mean?" Skull asked.

Joker didn't look up. He was in no mood to stay here any longer. "'King', 'Queen' and 'Slave'. That's what each section is. If we find the right books we can put them in those gaps."

There was an awkward pause as Skull, Panther and Mona glanced at one another, grateful for the direction, confused about how Joker had already worked out what was going on, and worried for how their de facto leader was coping with Kamoshida's revelry in his actions, because frankly it didn't sound like he was. Eventually, Panther took the initiative. "We'll go find them, you..." She tailed off for a moment. not wanting to bring anything up that might hurt her friend, but pushed through and said what she wanted to say. "You need a moment. Take a rest, recover. We've got this."

As they scurried out to look for the books that would grant their passage, Joker sank into the chair next to the globe. As soon as he had done so, tears of frustration began to build up. He felt useless. He couldn't fight, he couldn't help while he was in this state - had he really been scarred so much by Kamoshida? Was this how Shiho had felt? What the volleyball team were subjected to regularly? If they could put up with that and he couldn't, then how could he be strong enough to do this? Had he been sent back just to deal with a fresh nightmare, one he wasn't prepared for?

He was so lost in his own head that he didn't notice the rest of the group come back, each having found one of the books. As Joker had expected, the room shook and one of the unaltered bookcases slid away to reveal a new room, but he was not paying attention to it.

"Hey." Panther had come over once again and crouched down beside him to talk at an even level. "I know this hurts, because I'm hurting too, but you can't sit around here and mope. We can talk about this once we get out again, okay? For now we need to keep going, and we need your help to get through here. Can you do that?"

Joker sat, processing the words he had just heard, and as they slowly sunk in, his melancholy stripped away and was replaced in equal parts with gratitude for the validation he had been offered and more frustration at how easily he had broken.

"Yeah... yeah, okay."

He pushed himself off the chair and turned to the newly-revealed room. It bore striking similarities to the room where they had found Shadow Kamoshida nearly a week ago now, in that it was a room whose decor was dominated by a bondage frame in the centre. There were, however, a few sickening differences. The floor surrounding the frame was heavily scattered with rose petals, although they were hardly noticeable at first on account of how dark the room was. It was so dark that, had the gang not been facing in the right direction when they entered, they might have missed the photos that lined the back wall - all photos of one Shiho Suzui. Some from practice, some from around the school.

"Oh god..." Panther barely got the words out, murmuring as if she thought that speaking too loudly might bring the entire room down on top of them. "Why's he so obsessed with Shiho?"

Skull interrupted, although for once it was welcome. "It's because he's a sick bastard. The sooner we take him down, the sooner we can keep her safe."

His words spurred a thought with Joker, and he spoke up. "If we're expelled then there's nothing we can do to stop him from getting to Shiho - but Kamoshida has to know that, so I don't think he'll try anything until then." It wasn't a safe bet, to be sure, but there was a strand of logic to it.

"Then we'd better get this right!" Mona's voice came from the side of the room, where the cat had been rooting through a cupboard and now proudly displayed to the others both a map of the castle and a medal that would serve as their key for the path forwards. "What's the plan?"

"Let's unlock that door and then get out for the day. We'll look over that map once we're back and see if we can find where the Treasure is, then come back another day and clear the rest of the path to it. After that," Ren allowed himself a small smile, "we just need to steal it."

"Man, never thought I'd be stealin' treasure from a shitty guy's heart..." Ryuji sounded a little giddy at the prospect. "It's almost like we're thieves!"

"Yeah." A sense of purpose and serenity washed over Ren. "Phantom Thieves."


End file.
